


Of Strength and its Pretenders

by najio



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Baby Ruby, Baby Yang, Fluff, Major Character Death is Summer, Multi, STRQ prequel, Team STRQ - Freeform, because baby Yang and Ruby, because it's STRQ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:47:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27375181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/najio/pseuds/najio
Summary: In which Summer doesn't know how to rest,Tai figures out when to push,Qrow needs something to belong to,and Raven tries and fails to learn to cry.
Relationships: Raven Branwen/Summer Rose, Raven Branwen/Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen/Taiyang Xiao Long, Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao Long
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	1. Cursed Children

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't mind me, just scooting some completed fics from FFN to Ao3!

Qrow remembers unlocking his semblance like he remembers meeting Raven. It must have happened, there must have been a first time that he waved his chubby baby fists and struck something solid and _knew._ But that's all hypothetical. In his gut, they've always been there—his sister, and and his curse.

It's weird, really. He's watched Yang meet her sister, lose her mother, and find her semblance, all in order. In his first memories, it's all already happened. He and Raven are living in a trading caravan with someone who's probably their father, though he doesn't look much like them and he gives them the same sideways looks everyone else does.

No one knows it's a semblance. All they see are two half-wild children, mirrors of one another, with dark hair and red eyes. And maybe that would've been it, maybe no one would've made the obvious connection to the Grimm, if it weren't for all the accidents. Broken wagon wheels, spooked horses, shitty weather... always worse around the twins. Suspicion turns into resentment, resentment draws Grimm, and finally the leader of the caravan leaves the pair of them by the side of the road. The man who might be their father says nothing. He looks relieved.

It rains. They huddle together, their hair clinging damp and clammy to their foreheads, shivering. Abandoned and alone except for each other. Somehow, it becomes one of his most precious memories.

There's nothing else to do, so they follow the caravan. They plan how they'll steal all the food they can eat and stuff their faces with sweets, now there's no one to tell them not to. How they'll take blankets and build a secret treehouse in the woods.

When they reach it, everyone's already dead. Strangers in masks stand over the bodies, cleaning weapons and picking through the supply wagons. The twins freeze. And then Raven is gone, and Qrow whirls around, and there's a gigantic man holding her up by one arm, looking at her like she's a bug pinned to a card. Qrow hurls himself at the man's legs, kicking and punching everything he can reach, and Raven bites down on his hand.

"I found a pair of Grimmlings!" he guffaws. "Look!"

There's blood on the man's hands, and not from Raven biting him. He drops her next to Qrow, but catches them by the backs of their shirts when they try to run. "Easy now," he says, with a warm smile that doesn't belong on such a brutal face. "I know a couple runaways when I see 'em! Have some food. These little shits won't need it."

They're hungry, and once he's put them down he's the nicest adult they've ever met, so they let him feed them. He introduces himself as Crimson. The twins watch the rest of the camp shun him and know instinctively that he is safe.

Their instincts will get better.

The other bandits try to make him leave them by the side of the road, and after a lot of arguing one of them finally snaps, _"She'll_ decide, then."

Everyone goes deathly silent. The twins fidget, trying to imagine who could possibly be bigger, stronger, and more intimidating than Crimson. And then she emerges from one of the tents—slowly, stiffly, leaning on a gnarled wooden staff. She's ancient and leathery, as hunched and twisted as her stick, but they hardly notice because she has the head of a monster. Four empty slits for eyes, blank bone traced with red, cold and expressionless.

"They won't make trouble."

It's not quite a threat, not quite a command. They cling to one another and hide behind Crimson's legs. "No ma'am," he says. "And I'll feed 'em myself."

"Very well." The Crone flicks a hand to dismiss them. "Do as you like."

Crimson likes to feed them, and watch them play together with a soft, crooked smile on his face. He likes to push other people out of the way to give them the best places by the cook fires, and to bring them back little toys and trinkets from his raids.

He takes them hunting, and they learn he also likes to watch them hurt things. He likes to make them spar, with fists and then with knives and _then—_

Qrow doesn't remember unlocking his aura. He definitely doesn't remember Raven unlocking hers. So there's an instant when he doesn't know, he _doesn't know,_ and she has to yell at him and slap him across the face before he realizes she isn't bleeding.

They never find out what comes after knives, because Crimson dies in a raid. Qrow is ashamed of himself for being glad, until Raven makes a point by wearing the shirt with the tear an inch above her belly button.

The Crone lets them stay, because by now they're good enough hunters to feed more than themselves, and good enough scouts to be useful during raids. But the muttering starts again. While Crimson was alive, most of the bandits preferred to keep them out of sight and out of mind. Now he's gone, people are noticing the same patterns.

It doesn't take long for the Branwens to figure out it's a semblance, but they still don't know whose. The bandits argue with one another. A few of them make bets. The twins talk about it one night, and decide that they share everything else—why not a semblance?

The muttering gets louder. Sometimes, late at night and half asleep, with Raven's arm draped over his side, the old dream resurfaces. He imagines them as the bandit king and queen of the forest, living in a secret treehouse no one else can find, and smiles. But then he wakes up and real life reasserts itself, and he dreads the moment when they're left cold and alone on the side of the road.

Finally the day comes when Qrow looks at the Crone, and she looks back, and he stares into the empty eyes of her mask and knows. He and Raven curl up in the tent that used to be Crimson's. She starts to cry. He whispers about the treehouse, and she scoffs at him and tells him they can't be bandit king and queen _and_ live where no one will ever find them. They'll be hunters instead, vanish into ancient, long-lost forests, and never speak to anyone else again.

Gunfire wakes them. They're on their feet, lunging for knives, when something crashes into the side of the tent and the world turns white. Qrow struggles, manages to cut through the canvas he's drowning in. Something hits him and he goes flying, and it's dark and there's a fire somewhere and the smoke chokes him and he reaches out and _Raven isn't there._

There's a woman with a pair of revolvers, two Branwens dead at her feet. _Huntress._ Qrow scrambles away, but she's between him and his sister and everything gets turned around in the chaos, until he can't remember which way he needs to go.

Impact. He hits a tree and collapses on the ground, coughing. The knife is still in his hand. Someone grabs him by the throat and hauls him up and he meets a pair of startled green eyes. "Oh," the Hunstman blurts out. Qrow slashes at his face. He swears and slams him into the tree, and stars explode in front of his eyes. His aura shatters. Qrow attacks again, and then his arm is numb and the knife is gone.

"You little—" the Huntsman snarls, and his grip tightens until Qrow can feel something inside himself creaking, about to snap—

A noise, like a crystal vibrating at just the wrong frequency, caught in the moment before it shatters. A swirling void of red and black. Then Raven is there, and there's a knife sticking out of the Huntsman. He drops Qrow, stumbles, tries to grab her, and finally keels over in the dirt. The Huntress with the revolvers screams, "Ethan!"

Qrow doesn't see what happens to her—he's too busy throwing himself at Raven, burying her face into his shoulder so she won't look at the dead man. When he looks up again the Huntress is dead, too, and the Crone is there. Staring at them.

"Raven."

She lifts her head, still clinging to Qrow's hand.

An imperious tilt to the masked face. "Do that again."

She does. Again and again and again. And Qrow realizes with a slow, creeping horror that it was _him._ It was always him.

The camp change their tune now that the twins are so unquestionably useful. Now that _Raven_ is useful. Qrow sees the way they look at him, and knows that they would get rid of him if they could. But they can't, because no matter how many times the Crone pushes them apart, no matter how many times she tries to force Raven to open a portal somewhere else, it never works.

She knows it hurts him that they don't share a semblance after all, but not why. The tribe respects her, now, and they don't sneer at him where she can see. But it does help when she points out the symmetry between them. She can't make a portal to anyone else, and she's the only one immune to his semblance. Neither can function without the other. A matched pair.

Her voice goes thick as she talks. He hugs her, and she whispers into his chest that she could sense he was about to die. "I'm glad the bastard's dead," she snarls, but he can feel her shaking.

His sister doesn't cry again for a very, very long time.

She's useful, now. So useful that the Crone herself takes a personal interest in her. Qrow learns to fight, too, but it's Raven who learns how to _think._ To be strong and unyielding, to make hard choices without flinching, and to give the Grimm no fear to feed on.

Qrow watches the girl that cried with him disappear. His sister turns into another of the bandits, and so does he, but it's alright. Wherever they are, he can reach out and grab her hand and know she's not _really_ gone. The children they used to be got their wish—they're hidden away in secret forests, where no one else will ever find them.


	2. Ichabod

Summer arrives in Sopris barefoot and alone, with nothing but the clothes on her back and her grandmother's name.

It seems pointlessly cruel to ask what happened when it's so obvious, so the townspeople send the Huntress in residence to the cabin in the woods to find out whether it was bandits or Grimm. Summer doesn't say anything, even though she knows it was neither.

They talk a lot where they think she can't hear them. By the time one of them braces himself to tell her that her mother is dead, she's already overheard it twice—but she already knew _that,_ too.

People ask about her father. Aunts and uncles. Grandparents. She shakes her head, and their smiles get tight and sad. Two men arrive, disheveled and half-asleep. A local couple that were hoping to adopt a baby. One squats down to match her height, smiles, and tells her his name is Kieran. The other stays silent and stern-faced. Kieran introduces him as Bain.

There are calls to make. Forms to fill out. Kieran sits next to her and gently asks for her name. She stumbles over the last name. He asks her to spell it, and she doesn't know how, and somehow this is what makes her burst into tears. He does his best to comfort her while Bain makes a wild guess and writes _Summer Reyne_ on the form.

It's awkward. She forgets Bain's name twice, and she has to ask where the bathroom is, and Kieran chatters to fill the silence. They try to show her to her room, but she doesn't want to sleep. So they sit on the sofa and stare through the cartoons playing on the video screen, until the sun comes up and Bain cooks breakfast. Kieran balances a spoon on the bridge of his nose, and she manages a weak smile.

Bain disappears to deal with the rest of the legal stuff. Summer's tired by now, and trying to pretend she isn't. Then she puts her head down for a second and

She's on the carpet, drawing with a pack of crayons. Warm light washes the room. Her hands cast soft shadows as she scribbles.

_Tap._

It's a Huntsman, standing tall and proud with a sword held high over his head, and a red-and-white cape draped over one shoulder. Summer made up all the details, except for his eyes. They're silver like hers.

(Her mother tells her this with a smile

_Tap._

because she knows someone killed him but not why.)

Finally she looks up. Her window is closed, the curtains drawn wide. It's dark outside, so all she sees is her own face reflected back at her.

_Tap._

Like a bird pecking at the glass. She stands up and, not wanting to startle it, reaches up to the light switch.

In an instant her face is replaced by a stranger's. Wide, feverish smile. Hands like pale spiders. Long index finger crooks back, strikes the glass. _Tap._

Her hand is still on the light-switch. She's numb all over, feeling only the frantic stuttering of her heart and the rush of blood in her ears.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

A brittle sound, as a tiny crack spreads across the glass. She can't move. The crack widens. Her body is far away. She's calmer, now, convinced she's about to wake up from the nightmare. There's a tinkle of glass against the window frame. A draft of cold air washes over her, drawing goosebumps up her arms. Not a dream. A spindly hand reaches inside.

She must scream, because the bedroom door slams open. Snapshots, now, all out of order. Hands squeezing her shoulders. The window shattering.

_"You're Summer Reyne, now."_

Cold. The color red.

Summer jerks awake. There's someone looming over her, at the foot of the bed, and she lashes out in a panic. Kieran catches her hands and shushes her, kneeling next to her and petting her hair. She grabs him around the middle and buries her face in his shirt.

It takes a minute to realize she's in a new room. _Her_ new room. A window facing the door, all reflections.

"The window," she hiccups. "It's—don't—"

Kieran keeps asking questions until something clicks and his shoulders relax. "Don't worry. There's nothing out there, I promise. Here, I'll go check—"

_"No!"_

He says something else, but the words come out distant and strange, like he's talking underwater. The door opens again, and Bain sticks his head inside. It takes both of them reassuring her that they won't go outside for her to let go.

She can't go back to sleep in that room, and when they ask why all she can say is the window. They don't understand, and she can't explain about Ichabod because—

_"They'll think it was the Grimm, and you have to let them. Understand?"_

They set her up on the couch with more cartoons, while they talk in hushed voices in the kitchen. Not hushed enough. She moves closer so she can listen.

"—not going to leave her in the basement!" Kieren says fiercely. "She's a little girl, not an antique lamp!"

"There's only the one window down there. We can put up some cardboard."

"Oh, yeah, lock her up with no sunlight, _great idea!"_

Bain sighs. "Helping her feel safe is more important than how it looks, Kyr."

They're both quiet for a long time. Summer goes back to the video screen.

Kieran moves her things into the basement, and Bain duct tapes a piece of cardboard over the window. They put a night-light by the door. Kieran sits on the edge of the bed until she falls asleep.

_Tap. Tap. Tap—_

Summer wakes up on the floor in a tangle of sweat and sheets, her heart beating so loudly she can't hear anything else. Until it slows.

_Tap._

She can't move.

_Tap._

Her hands clamp down over her ears, but she can't block out the sound. Like a bird pecking at her window.

Kieran finds her there, she doesn't know how much later, curled in a ball and mumbling, "No," over and over as if that would make it not real.

He puts a towel in the sink, to block the dripping from the leaky tap, and digs out a box of crayons. They sit on the floor coloring until morning. Bain fixes the pipe, and they put a baby monitor in her room. It's so embarrassing she almost asks them to take it out, but then she has a nightmare and they're both right there when she opens her eyes, and she moves it closer to her bed instead.

Nights pass. Sometimes it's Kieren that comes to stay with her when she wakes up, and he talks and cracks jokes until she falls asleep again. Sometimes it's Bain, and he reads her stories and sits at the foot of her bed like a silent, steady guardian. She sleeps through the night once, then twice, then almost every night.

She's eight when she decides to get rid of the baby monitor, and ten when she finally lets Bain take down the cardboard. The bare walls of the basement are papered over with drawings and cluttered up with shelves of books. There's school, and teachers, and other students, and everyone smiles at her and tells her how glad they are that she's doing better.

She feels like she's ice-skating. One wrong step—

_Tap._

Steps backward. She stops sleeping through the night, tapes up her window and, in a blind fury, tears away childhood drawings. Reveals one, buried underneath several others. A Huntsman with silver eyes.

When she tells her fathers she wants to be a Huntress, they both go quiet. Eventually Bain nods, slow and grave. Kieran takes much longer to convince. He means well—he wants her to feel safe, and can't understand that will never happen as long as she's still that little girl, paralyzed with her hand on the light switch. But he doesn't stop her.

She leaves the shredded drawings on the wall, and hangs her sickles in the space where they used to be—framing the picture of her father.

It's hard. The nightmares get worse again, and she has to practice in the woods, and every day feels like clawing herself out of a pit. But there are golden moments where she can finally _breathe_ again, coming thicker and faster, until one afternoon she meets her first Grimm and laughs in its face.

"You're not scary," she tells the Beowolf as she watches it dissolve.

Her fathers cry when she gets into Beacon. Bain tries to pretend he isn't, but he's a terrible liar. There's fear, there—but much more pride. She opens their gift, and then all _three_ of them are crying, because it's perfect. A cape, white lined with red. Just like the one the father she never met wears in all of her drawings, the one she's imagined so many times she can almost feel it at her fingertips.

The puzzle is almost finished. She waits, poised with the final piece in her hand, until she steps down into Beacon's courtyard.

A blond boy is the first to greet her. He's such a disaster that she has to laugh—hair sticking up in every direction, cargo shorts that come down a little too far past his knees, socks and sandals. And somehow, on him, it sort of works.

"I'm Tai," he says, sticking out his hand.

"Summer. Summer Rose."

_Come and get me, Ichabod._


	3. Trouble

Later, when Taiyang looks back on his first day at Beacon, it will seem like he should have known. Like some part of him should've felt an echo of what this woman will mean to him when he shakes her hand. But the only thing that strikes him about Summer in that moment is the strange way she says her name. As if she thinks someone will take it away.

Raven, though? He knows Raven will be trouble the moment they lay eyes on each other. He doesn't exactly have to be a genius, when she's glaring at him like that.

"Hi!" he says. "I guess this makes us partners?"

A flat, "No." She turns on her heel and strides into the woods, and he stands there for a solid thirty seconds before he finally snaps out of his shock and jogs after her. He's already halfway in love with her, because he's an idiot.

She ignores him, which he takes as a very bad sign. (He hasn't yet learned that when Raven doesn't want you around, she doesn't let you follow.) It's obvious she's looking for someone. That bothers him, because he's an idiot.

They find the relics. This year they're miniature Grimm made of iron, and Tai sees Qrow for the first time, leaning casually against a low stone wall and tossing a tiny Nevermore from hand to hand. Summer's with him. So are two boys, one of them holding the other Nevermore and, from the sound of it, trying to get their group moving back toward the cliffs.

Raven snatches the relic out of his hands without even glancing at him. He squawks in indignation, then goes quiet when she gives him another of her _looks._ (They don't quite have the intended effect on Tai. He's never sure if that's more unfortunate for Raven, or for him.) Qrow laughs. Maybe at the boys, maybe at Raven, probably all of the above. Summer gives Tai a strained grin that makes him think her partner hasn't been much friendlier than his.

He's much too relieved when he sees the family resemblance. And too disappointed when Raven stops giving him those hostile glares the moment she's sure she and her twin will be on the same team.

They don't fight a Nevermore. (Decades later, Qrow will grumble about his nieces stealing the _perfect_ boss fight.) The sleuth of Ursai they meet instead is plenty challenging enough. It's a mess—team strategy's never really been Tai's thing, the twins forget they have teammates the moment the fight starts, and Summer's still too shy to yell at them.

It all works out. An Ursa almost catches him in the chest, but it's easy enough to avoid with his semblance. He ignites and lets the paw pass right through him. When he goes solid again the Grimm's confused and on fire, and doesn't put up much more of a fight. Improbably, the biggest of the monsters trips over a root and impales itself on Raven's sword. Then they're standing in a clearing, panting as Grimm dissolve around them.

Summer slumps. "We have _got_ to get into the workshop," she says, shaking her head in dismay. "This is just sad." Tai looks down at his own bare fists. Then at Raven—her sword is ancient and battle-scarred, but it's also razor-sharp and practical to the core. Qrow's is just as ugly and rusted halfway to dust. The only decoration on either of their weapons is an identical spray of black feathers tied to their hilts. Neither of them seem to use Dust, or mecha shift, or do anything interesting at all.

Qrow glances up at her and smirks. "Can't engineer skill."

It doesn't take long after that for Tai to realize the Branwens are weird—even by Hunter standards. Raven doesn't seem quite convinced that the cafeteria food isn't poisoned, while Qrow stuffs his face like someone's going to take it away from him. They gawk at the school-issue scrolls, and the CCT tower, the dorm room...

They're not from the kingdoms. It's the only explanation that make sense, after he and Summer spend almost half an hour explaining the concept of homework. Showers, mattresses, written exams, all completely new to them.

So are uniforms.

"Here," Tai says, and hands Qrow Raven's skirt.

"The fuck?"

"It's a kilt," Summer adds helpfully. They share a smirk.

Raven watches them with one eyebrow raised—she's holding up his slacks and looking deeply suspicious, but when he turns towards her she just shrugs and says, "We're supposed to wear the uniform."

The joke backfires. They walk into class to a storm of giggling, and the TA stumbles outside with a hand over his mouth. Then Qrow puts a foot up on the desks and poses, and suddenly the laughter turns into a lot of appreciative stares. A girl named Vira wolf-whistles. But the bigger problem is Raven—her eyes sweeping the room to take in the rows and rows of girls in skirts, her confident swagger as she plops down on the bench, and the way she spreads out to fill up three seats worth of space.

It gets less funny after the second day, when Summer has to explain to Raven that _no,_ she can't follow Qrow into the bathroom. They sleep in the same bunk, even though he whines about getting her hair in his mouth. Every time one of them leaves a room, the other follows.

In other words, it's completely impossible to talk to Raven alone. Ever. Until, suddenly, it isn't.

"Where's Qrow?"

Raven makes a face. "SLVR's dorm."

"...Oh. Are he and Vira, you know, together?"

"No. He'll be back in an hour or two."

Tai flails for words, his face hot. "So he's, what, blowing off steam? Seems kind of..."

"Normal." Raven gives him a sharp look. "He doesn't do relationships."

"Is that something you two... agree on?"

She stares at him. His brain catches up with his mouth, and he has about half a second to hope that Summer will give him a dignified funeral and maybe not mention how he died to his parents.

One eyebrow quirks upwards. "Points for boldness. Unfortunately bringing up my brother's sex life puts you _way_ in the negatives."

He opens and closes his mouth several times before he can get out, "That's fair." She's already walking away.

It's a terrible idea. Even ignoring however the hell Qrow will react, it's an awful, brainless, possibly-team-destroying idea to try and make anything happen there.

He does it anyway.

There's nowhere to flirt that isn't right in front of Qrow. Tai tries to be subtle, fails horribly, and to his pleasant surprise the reaction he gets is more amused than murderous. Until, to the shock of absolutely _everyone,_ possibly including Raven... she starts flirting back.

Suddenly the amused smirks are gone, and in their place is a cold, flat stare that wouldn't look out of place on a King Taijitu. So Tai is much too busy panicking over his unexpected success, and worrying about whether or not Qrow is planning to stab him in his sleep, to notice the flashes of hurt in Summer's eyes. At this point, the only question left is how big the explosion is going to be—and who gets hit with the shrapnel.

But the danger is what makes it fun. Their first kiss is on a mission, with Grimm guts still dissolving off Raven's jacket, which really _should_ put a damper on the whole thing. It doesn't.

Two weeks later, Qrow tries to kill him.

At least, that's what it looks like. They're out in the Emerald forest collecting leaf samples. He's standing by a cliff with his hands in his pockets when Qrow whirls around and shouts, _"Tai!"_

He looks up. There's barely enough time to use his semblance before a tree crashes through the space where he'd just been. He goes solid and stumbles back. It's already crackling like a cheerful bonfire. Qrow is standing there, looking more irritated than relieved.

"How'd you know that was going to happen?" Tai asks. "You were looking the other way."

"Fuck off."

He's acting way too cagey for it not to be something... and maybe Tai's been building up resentment for a bit too long, now. "Was that your semblance?" He glances back at the clifftop, and the bare spot where the tree used to be. What were the odds, really, of it choosing that exact moment to tip over? "What the hell, Qrow?"

"Fuck. Off." Raven, this time.

"What?" Tai blurts, indignant. "That could've killed me! Where does he get off—"

"He can't control it, you _dick."_

Tai deflates. "Oh."

"It's misfortune," Qrow says, staring fixedly at his shoes. "And it fucks with me, too. I get a warning if I'm lucky. I'm usually not."

He imagines he can hear a little _click,_ as dozens of odd incidents resolve themselves into a clear picture. The Ursa that impaled itself in initiation. The time Summer tripped and flubbed an attack during sparring. The way Raven—"

"Raven's the only one who's immune."

Tai blinks. "Uh... you sure about that?" And _oh,_ that's what it looks like when Qrow's actually contemplating murder.

"I mean," he blurts, raising his hands, "You guys know better than I do! It's just that I've seen her trip a _lot,_ now that I think about it, and there was that time she almost got hit by a truck because the brakes snapped—sorry, _sorry,_ shutting up now!"

If he was wrong, Qrow would've gotten over it after a few days of glaring—but he's not wrong. It's obvious now he's pointed it out. Raven trips over loose cobblestones and runs afoul of stray branches just as much as the rest of them do. She's just so used to it, and corrects for it so effortlessly, that even she's never noticed.

Now that she has, she doesn't speak to Tai for over a week. Neither does Qrow—but he doesn't speak to anyone else, either. Worst of all, he starts avoiding _Raven._

Or, well, he tries. That's when Tai and Summer find out about her semblance. She vanishes whenever he does, and they come back together hours later, both in foul moods. Sometimes she manages to coax a little life out of him by calling him an idiot for thinking he could get away from her that easily.

It can't last. Finally Summer drags all three of them to the armory. "You're all making _something,"_ she says, her hands on her hips. "And _you—"_ she glares at Qrow, "are going to _talk."_

He stares at her like she's just asked him to give her his liver, then looks down at his rust-spotted broadsword. "Does it have to be one of those stupid mecha-weapons?"

_"Yes."_

"Um." Tai raises his hand. "But I don't use...?"

"Make some armor, then!" Summer shoves him towards a workstation, and ignores his halfhearted protest that his semblance makes armor a bit pointless anyway.

"You!" Summer places Raven at the station next to his, and gives her a stern look. "Stay."

Raven's eyes narrow. She opens her mouth—

"Five minutes." Summer's expression softens. "Please?"

Summer's gone before Raven can muster a response. Tai swallows. "H-hard to argue with, isn't she?" He tries for a grin. She ignores him.

They never find out what Summer says to Qrow, but he leaves the armory with a blueprint of a gigantic, mecha-shifting scythe and his first smile in days. Tai steels his nerve and says, "Hey, man. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

"Nah." Qrow gives him a one-shouldered shrug. "Better to know. But I'm not thanking you."

They're still not friendly after that, but Tai's pretty sure the glares he's getting now are the dating-his-twin-sister kind. Raven holds a grudge for a little longer, but once she sees Qrow grinning from ear to ear, and chattering to Summer about his new scythe—based on the Grimm Reaper's, apparently—she softens.

He's not quite sure where that leaves them, until she ambushes him outside the dorm and cuts off his stammering with a kiss. They're back where they were. Then they're not, because she starts slipping hands under his shirt and looking at him like she's going to swallow him whole.

Tai's always been the sort of person to go with the flow. So that's what he does, even when the tide comes out and knocks him clean off his feet. Raven kicks the others out of the dorm without the slightest hint of shame _or_ subtlety, and leaves him sprawled on her bed trying to piece his scattered thoughts back together.

This is the first time he looks up and finds her gone.

It isn't fun anymore. It's a new kind of confusion, and every day he bounces back and forth from hope to lust to those horrible empty seconds when he knows she's not there, but he still doesn't want to turn and see. He tries to talk about it, but it isn't exactly difficult for her to avoid that conversation when he's so easy to distract. Until, finally, he manages to catch her wrist before she leaves the room and whisper, "Stay?"

She turns. He can see she's relieved, and he _knows_ it'll be alright.

"If you can't keep this casual, we should probably stop."

He can't. They do.

It's not as bad as it might have been. Qrow goes from cold and sneering to sympathetic overnight. Summer sits with him while he vents, occasionally petting his hair. Never saying a word. Months pass, and it starts to hurt a little less. And maybe that could have been it. They could've filed it away as a teenaged embarrassment and moved on. Found other people to love. Looked back years later and laughed.

But Team STRQ doesn't do disasters by half-measures.


	4. Double

Beacon is exactly what Raven expected. Soft beds, soft lessons. Soft people.

Qrow loves it. He eats himself sick at every meal and takes so many hot showers she forgets what his hair looks like dry, and sometimes he just lies in bed and does absolutely nothing for hours on end. It's infuriating.

It's seductive.

Everything she could want is at her fingertips. When she's hungry, there's food. When she's bored, there's a library full of books, sparring rooms, _scrolls._ But her teammates are definitely the worst of it.

In Raven's defense, this is the first time she's ever been around anyone her age who isn't her twin brother. Now all of a sudden Tai's winking after every other sentence and saying things that are _almost_ innocent. He's right there, and she wants him, so she takes him. Nice and simple.

He gets attached, and it gets messy, but she cuts things off and he gets over it. Things work out fine. She still decides that maybe, just maybe, getting involved with a teammate wasn't the best idea. It's not completely impossible that it could've blown up their dynamic badly enough that they couldn't graduate. She feels queasy just _imagining_ having to explain that to the Crone.

Easy to say. Easy to do, when the temptation is distant and hypothetical.

Raven gets hurt on a mission. It's not a big deal. She looks down, calmly assesses the damage, and decides it's probably not life-threatening. Her teammates act like she's dying. Tai roars and hurls himself at the Beringel responsible. Qrow stumbles away from her with his eyes wide—she knows she should recognize the look on his face, but it's so hard to focus. And Summer...

They have this habit, her teammates, of showing the world far too much of what they're thinking. This is worse. It's like she turns transparent for an instant, all the shock and fear laid bare. And something else, something earnest and yearning that makes Raven want to run.

But she's got a tree branch sticking out of her side, so she doesn't.

She heals. Qrow apologizes, and she smacks him upside the head and tells him to stop being such an idiot. Things go back to normal. Except for Summer, who can't seem to stop sneaking glances. Suddenly she's right there, and Raven wants her, and it's _such_ a bad idea.

"Anyone else," Qrow groans. "Just screw _literally_ anyone else, it's not that hard." Sometimes it's fucking annoying, having a brother who can read her mind.

Two weeks later, she snaps and pushes Summer up against a wall. There's a quick, "But, Tai—" which she smothers. It's been over for months, and anyway it was only a casual fling.

They still keep it secret for a while—Summer because she's anxious about Tai, Raven because sneaking around is exciting. Of course Qrow sees it on her face immediately, but he only buries his head in his hands and mutters choice words under his breath. He spends the next night in Aiden's dorm, anyway, so she's not convinced he has a leg to stand on.

Of course, when Tai _does_ find out, it's by walking in on them at the worst possible moment. He and Summer do a lot of blushing and stammering. Raven is mostly just glad Qrow wasn't with him. And if Summer seems somehow lighter after that, well, exam season is finally over. Surely everyone is feeling less guilty.

Things stay easy for the last two months of the year, right up until the day she and Qrow go back to the tribe. Summer catches her hand and squeezes it. "I'll miss you."

Raven pulls away and says, "Don't."

Going home is good for her. She remembers the urgency, the mission, and that Beacon is only temporary. And if sometimes she imagines she can feel the distance between her and Summer a little too acutely, then at least she knows she's strong enough to crush it if she needs to.

The third year starts, and slips through her fingers like water. She tries to hold on to the time and suddenly it's halfway over, and she's with Tai on a partner mission way out in the Emerald forest. The other two are somewhere in Forever Fall.

This is the first time in her life she's been this far away from Qrow. She's glad it's Tai, though, even if he's awkward as hell. He pretends not to notice how tense she is.

They run into trouble. Not enough to be interesting, even with only two of them. Raven's sword is buried in a Deathstalker when she staggers.

Summer is about to die.

She doesn't think. There's a portal in front of her and then she's inside, and Tai's cut off in the middle of shouting her name. Dead silence in the empty space between. The exit portal. She sprints through it.

There's a person in front of her. Unfamiliar. Confused, reaching up to touch the hilt of the sword that's sticking out of her chest. She slumps to the ground.

Raven flicks blood off the blade. Summer is on her back, gaping up at her. Qrow skids to a stop mid-sprint and drops his scythe.

She nudges the dead woman with her boot. "Who the fuck was that?"

Summer's eyes well up. Raven belatedly remembers that she's from the Kingdoms. Probably never seen a corpse before.

"She was trying to kill you, right?" Raven looks to Qrow for an answer, but he's still just standing there. Staring at her.

"Yeah." Summer wipes her nose on her sleeve and stands up. "Yeah. She was after me."

"Good riddance, then."

There's no way for Raven to get back, and she's not sure she wants to until _someone_ explains why Summer has an assassin problem, so she's still with them when they camp for the night. Qrow's even moodier than usual, and doesn't talk to either of them all night. Just as Raven is resigning herself to interrogating him in their tent, Summer grabs her hand and drags her into hers.

"Sorry," she says. "I just..."

Right. Kingdoms girl.

"It's fine." She can talk to Qrow in the morning.

Summer pulls off one of her boots. Then she sits there, staring at it, brushing her thumb over the laces. "Are you okay?"

"What?"

"I mean... I'm glad you did it. But..."

"That wasn't the first time I killed someone."

Summer is quiet for a while. Raven stretches out in her sleeping bag and closes her eyes. And, when she's almost asleep, "It wasn't the first time someone's tried to kill me."

Raven sits up. Summer's hugging her knees to her chest, and gazing at something beyond the walls of their tent. "Why?" she asks.

Summer shrugs.

"You're joking."

"I mean, I was six. I don't think I'd done anything."

"...Who?"

"No idea." Summer rocks back and forth. "I call him Ichabod."

"Is he dead?"

A shiver goes through her. "No."

"We should fix that."

Summer grins. Raven isn't joking.

She lies down again, but she doesn't sleep. Summer is staring at her. Then, slowly, like she doesn't want to startle her, she slips into the same sleeping bag.

"What, now?" Raven blurts.

Summer wraps an arm around her waist and buries her head in her shoulder. "I don't think I'll sleep if I'm alone."

Raven swallows. Summer is still looking at her, even now that her eyes are half-closed. Her expression is soft and trusting and _wrong._

"What's up?" she mumbles, when Raven goes stiff as a board.

"This isn't... we're not..."

"Not serious?" Summer shifts even closer. "Raven, you couldn't have made that portal if you didn't care."

Too hot. Heat between them, a fluttering warmth in the pit of her stomach, and worst of all a burning feeling in her throat. Choking her.

"It's okay."

It's not.

Raven tries to keep her breathing even, but it catches on the year and a half they have left in Beacon. The first tear falls, and then it's all she can do to keep it quiet—but there's no hiding from Summer. She presses their foreheads together and kisses them away, one by one, with a tenderness that makes it so much worse.

Another instant, and something inside will crumble. She tears herself free and jumps into the void. But she can't let Qrow see this, not when he'll know _why,_ and when another option presents itself she doesn't hesitate.

Tai yelps and trips over a tree branch. Then he sees the look on her face and pales. "Is it—are they?"

"Fine," she says, and turns away.

Silence. Then, "I'll make some tea."

He takes much longer than he needs to. She struggles to get herself under control, while he putters about noisily by the fire. Then she sits down, and he pours tea into tin cups, and it's simple. Safe.

Tai doesn't ask. Doesn't mention the portal. But he hands her the tea, and she looks up at him, and he smiles. It's soft, and warm, and _oh, fuck._

The mission lasts another three days—so she has three days alone with Tai, and he's so determined to make it easy. He lets her pretend that nothing's wrong, and tells stupid jokes she won't be caught dead laughing at, and always turns away afterward so she can smile without him seeing.

It's raining, the day they get back to Beacon. The other two are already there when they walk into the dorm. Tai goes stiff and dives under the cover of his textbooks. Qrow sits, his shoulders hunched and sullen, not looking at any of them. And Summer...

"I'm going for a walk," Raven says, and turns on her heel.

Outside the world is strangely blurred. Raven stands there, water dripping into her eyes. Wishing she could stop thinking about how much Summer hates the sound of rain on a windowpane.

"Raven?"

...And now they're alone again. Shit.

A hand on her shoulder. Raven doesn't turn, but Summer doesn't wait. She walks around, and moves in much too close, and it has to stop.

Raven steps back. "I can't do this anymore."

"Why? Because you realized it actually matters to you?"

"Stop."

Summer cups her face in both hands, forcing her to meet her eyes—turned luminous by some trick of the light. "There's nothing wrong with loving someone."

There is. Raven _knows_ that there is. But she can't help wanting.

"That's it." Her head is resting on Summer's shoulder, somehow, and spinning with the smell of roses. And Raven gives up. Let it all go to shit, if she can have this first.

The next week is... raw.

One minute she'll be cross-legged on her bed, Summer leaning into her side, lost in how strange it is to be this _close_ without any real reason. The next she'll catch Qrow's eye, and the weight of what she's _doing_ will hit her like a Goliath. She can't look at Summer without remembering she's betraying the tribe, and she can't look at her brother without remembering she's betraying Summer.

It's not planned. But the guilt soaks into everything, until she hardly even notices it except by its absence. She doesn't mean to start running away from it—and she definitely doesn't mean to drag Tai into things. But she can sit with him, and he'll smile, and make tea, and not say a word. He's too damn good at making it easy.

Summer, though? She sees difficult and takes it as a challenge.

"Do you like him?" she asks, one afternoon when they're lazing about in a patch of shade. Raven almost doesn't hear it, at first—she's caught up in thinking about the four months she has left before the next break, and wondering if it's true the Crone can read minds.

Then she freezes, and it's much too guilty even though she hasn't _done_ anything. Summer just smiles. "Yeah, I figured you did."

Raven doesn't know much about how romance works in the kingdoms, but she's pretty sure they're off script. "I can stop," she tries.

Summer snorts. "We wouldn't be here right now, if that was true."

"I mean, I can stop hanging around him."

"I think you're overthinking this." Summer bumps her shoulder. "I like him too. We can just ask him out, if we want to."

Raven should say no—but what's the difference, really, between one broken heart and two?

It's almost worth it just for the look on his face. (Summer probably shouldn't have let Raven do the talking.) He stammers something completely unintelligible, looks around wildly as if he's expecting a trap, then squeaks, "Yes?"

Days slip through her fingers. She lies awake at night, her head pillowed on Tai's chest, Summer's arm around her waist. Clinging to the seconds.

She has to tear herself away to find Qrow—sulking, like he has been for almost a month, now. "It's not that big of a deal," she tells him. "They'll keep each other company once we leave."

"It'll be a pretty big deal if the old lady kills you," he points out—but he brightens up, after that.

Exam season arrives. Raven can hardly see the textbooks she pores over. She does badly, and doesn't care. They leave for the last mission of their third year.

It's in the outskirts of the desert, disputed territory between Vale and Vacuo. There's supposed to be a nest of ten Deathstalkers. Then a wall of the cave crumbles, and a pincer the size of a small car catches Tai right around the middle. His aura's already low, and his semblance doesn't protect him from the hits he doesn't see coming. There's a sound like snapping twigs.

Raven doesn't track what happens next. She hears a scream, her vision goes completely white, and in the next instant the Grimm are gone. Summer hits the ground. Tai keeps bleeding.

Hours later, she and Qrow sit together between two beds in the infirmary, listening to them breathe. Tai's broken most of his ribs, and the doctor says something about internal bleeding. Summer's completely fine, which is almost worse, because no one seems to know why she's still unconscious.

Classes are over. The Crone will expect them back soon.

"We could really do it, now," Qrow says.

"Do what." Her voice is hoarse from screaming at useless doctors.

"Disappear. Build that treehouse."

She brushes a lock of hair off Tai's forehead. "Or... we could stay."

Her stomach twists into a painful knot, but when she dares to look up at his face, he's smiling. "Yeah," he says, and squeezes Summer's hand. "We could."


	5. Dark Wings

Qrow expects to spend the break in the Emerald Forest with Raven, living out a childhood fantasy. Then Summer and Tai wake up. When they find out the twins have nowhere to stay, they insist on dragging them to their homes. So he watches his sister meet the parents, twice, and thinks that he might have preferred the company of the Grimm.

They spend a lot of time trying to figure out what the fuck happened, on that mission. Summer insists it's not her semblance.

"It's emotional, isn't it?" Tai asks. "What if—"

But she shakes her head. "Not like that. It's about pushing through fear, and in the cave I wasn't scared, exactly. Just, um, bluescreening. And even when it _does_ activate, it only hides other people from the Grimm."

"I thought you said it made you stronger?"

"Well, yeah, a little. It doesn't kill Grimm with _lasers,_ Tai."

"It wasn't a laser," Raven groans, not for the first time.

Qrow smirks. "It was totally a laser. Two lasers, right from your eyeballs."

It's a dumb joke, so he's fucking pissed when he turns out to be right.

There's something about Ozpin—there has to be, because they don't laugh and walk out of the room. They don't believe him either, not at first, but he's got this gravity to him that keeps them there while he explains, and... well... is there another explanation, really, for what Summer did?

Probably. But Qrow sure as hell can't think of one with the headmaster looking at them like that.

They're still not quite sure they believe him, but they're close enough that they take him seriously when he tells them, "I need scouts that I can trust."

Qrow tries not to look at Raven.

"Oh, I know. The four of you will need to talk about that at some point—but that's not what I meant. There are certain things I have to share with you, as Summer's teammates. Killing two birds with one stone, so to speak." He smirks in that infuriating way of his, like there's a joke only he understands.

So they wind up sitting in shell-shocked silence in their dorm common room. It's the first time they've had a dorm common room, with four small single rooms adjoining it, but Qrow's mind is racing much too fast to be grateful that his sister will stop kicking him out of their room.

"Um..." Tai says, and stops.

Summer doesn't let it go. "What did he mean? What do we need to talk about?"

Qrow glances at Raven.

She scowls. _Not yet._

He raises an eyebrow. _When?_

She looks away. _Never._

"Yeah," he drawls. "No way _that_ backfires."

She flips him off, which means he's won the argument.

"Wanna translate that for the rest of us?" asks Tai.

Raven glowers pointedly at the wall, which means Qrow's the one who'll have to explain. He clears his throat. "We, uh... we're not exactly from the kingdoms."

"We know," Tai and Summer say together.

Qrow rubs a hand through his hair. "Yeah. Yeah... uh..."

"We're from the Branwen tribe," Raven cuts in—apparently she's tired of watching him struggle. "Bandits."

Tai's eyes widen. "Oh. So... you decided to be Hunters instead?"

"Sort of," Qrow says. "The end of last year."

Silence.

Summer breaks it. "Why did you come here, then?" She knows. She knows, but she's going to make them say it.

"We..." But she's not looking at Qrow.

"We were supposed to learn to kill them," says Raven, blunt and callous except for the fact that she can't meet their eyes.

Tai inhales.

Summer stays quiet. Then, slowly, she nods. "Okay."

Raven looks up. "Okay?"

"I'm not happy about it. But that's... that's why you can't go home, isn't it?"

"Pretty much," Qrow says. "The old lady would kill us if she figured it out, and we're still not sure if she can read minds."

"Uh... old lady?" Tai looks like he's trying not to laugh. Probably mostly because he's tense, but Qrow kicks him in the shin anyway.

"The _Crone,"_ Raven says. "And you've never met her."

Summer lets out a deep, shuddering breath. "Right. Any more earth-shattering revelations today, or can we go to sleep?"

"Nope." Qrow yawns and stretches out, swinging his legs up onto Raven's lap. "That's all our mystery unraveled. Our mystique dispelled. Our depths plumbed—"

Raven shoves him off the couch.

That kills any hope they might have had for more serious conversation. Qrow retreats into his room, and the other three pile into Tai's. It's directly opposite his, and for the first time in far too long he is blissfully free of noise complaints

He doesn't sleep at all.

The next morning he and Raven and their team meet Ozpin out in Forever Fall. They're not sure why he's not in his office, and when they ask he only says, "I thought it might be prudent to go somewhere with more room."

Qrow has to admit, it lends a certain atmosphere to the whole thing.

"Well? Have you decided?"

Raven folds her arms. "Will we be helping Summer? If we're your scouts?"

"Yes."

The twins exchange a glance. She nods. Qrow asks, "What's this involve, exactly?"

"I am going to give you another form. You will be able to change at will—but you will not choose the animal you become. Neither will I..." Again, that knowing smirk. "Though I do have a hunch."

Ozpin lifts his cane and rests it against Raven's forehead. He says... something. It's no language Qrow's ever heard, and his voice is strangely resonant, and then it's over and nothing's different. She blinks.

"I thought you might prefer to change together," he says. The cane is cold against Qrow's brow. Then...

It doesn't hurt. He almost wishes it would—because it feels like his body is melting, and that really _should_ hurt—but in another heartbeat it's over. Ozpin towers over him. Qrow turns his head and meets Raven's eyes.

She opens her beak and says, "Quork?"

Their teammates approach. Tai gathers Raven up in his palms, his mouth hanging open. Qrow hops onto Summer's wrist and lets her lift him up to her face. "Whoa," she breathes, and pets his head with her pinky. He squawks, indignant, and she winces. "Um, sorry?"

Tai looks at Ozpin. "Seriously? A crow and a raven?"

"Credit where credit is due—whoever named you two had a very good sense of you." Qrow lets out a bark of derisive laughter. Crows turn out to be pretty good at that sound.

Raven hops onto Tai's shoulder. Then his head. He looks up, which almost makes her lose her balance. "Uh, Rae?"

She fluffs up her feathers. Tai makes a noise in the back of his throat he's lucky she doesn't notice. With all the gravity and ceremony a bird can muster, she launches herself into the air. For an instant she's airborne, flapping madly and veering wildly to the left. Then she smacks into a tree with a disgruntled squawk and flutters to the ground.

Qrow throws his head back and _cackles._ That sets off Tai, and after a valiant struggle Summer bursts into giggles. Raven emerges from behind the tree, very human and very annoyed. She marches straight up to Summer, snatches Qrow from her wrist, and chucks him like a baseball.

It's not an auspicious first flight. He can't tell which way is up, and by the time he's figured it out he's already bouncing off the forest floor and getting dead leaves in his feathers. He puffs himself up and glares at her.

There's a dry chuckle somewhere behind him. They both whirl around, and Qrow makes a little cheeping sound when he remembers the Headmaster of Beacon is _right there._

Raven is the first to fly away. Qrow chases after her, and soon they're making a game out of it, flitting between the branches of the trees. He caws at her. Getting used to his new throat. Then they land on their partners' shoulders, and he forgets he's a bird for a moment and says, "I can't believe you let her throw me."

Summer lets out a little shriek and Tai almost trips over his own feet. Even Raven stares at him. Then he remembers the feathers, and the little bird claws, and that it's maybe a bit weird that he just spoke in his usual voice.

Except, it turns out, that it isn't. Ozpin tells them it isn't magic at all—corvids are just very good mimics.

In the weeks that follow, Qrow and Raven start a new game. She creeps up behind Tai and shouts, "Tissue samples!" in a perfect imitation of Professor Peach that makes him scream and dive under his desk. Qrow clicks like a Deathstalker's pincers just inches from Summer's ear. She pinches his beak shut without glancing up from her textbook.

It's a shame it's supposed to be a secret, really, or Qrow might never have changed back.

His teammates start leaving their doors ajar at night. He flutters in and sleeps on the nightstand, his head under his wing, until Tai installs little wooden perches at the foot of each of their beds. He takes naps in Summer's hood. Raven lets him sit on her shoulder while she's studying and untangle her hair with his beak.

But they don't want him with them all the time. He _can't_ be with them all the time, not without seeing something that'll scar him for life. And even when they're just curled up on one of the common room sofas or sitting on the lawn with their backs to a tree... sometimes they want to be alone together. Sometimes Raven wants to be alone with them.

He doesn't like this feeling, of knowing where he ends and she begins.

Graduation is underwhelming. There's a little thrill of anxiety to it, like part of him still hasn't caught up with the fact that they're staying, but then they all go out to a bar and the feeling fades. Qrow doesn't feel any more like a Huntsman when he's got the certificate. He has his bird form for that.

Their classmates rent cheap apartments in Vale and take missions sporadically, on their own schedules. Team STRQ... don't. Ozpin always needs something, and they spend more time out in the wilds than in the city. They get hotel rooms or camp out under the stars. Qrow figures the nomadic lifestyle will wear on Tai and Summer, kingdom-grown as they are, but the only one he catches missing the Beacon dorms is himself.

Too many of their missions are solo. He spends weeks in the middle of fucking nowhere, alone, following suspicious characters and Grimm and people Ozpin says are important but won't tell him why. But they always come together again, and it gets easier as they go. Solitude is kind of nice when it isn't so damn lonely, and it isn't really when he knows Raven's still with him in her own way. Ready to pull his ass out of the fire if she needs to. He starts to like the long flights with the wind in his feathers, the nights spent wandering around dinky towns on the edge of hostile wilderness and doing whatever the hell he wants.

More than anything, though, he loves the nuggets of information Ozpin gives his team. He's trusting them with more and more of it, and it's such a strange and heady feeling. Like being a cog in a watch, ticking away to some greater purpose. A little cog that can say, _look. This is why I was made._

The stakes climb higher and higher—Maidens, gods... Salem. The end of the world, someday, if she isn't stopped. Qrow should probably be scared. All he can think is, _see? This is why I was worth the trouble._

So when Ozpin asks them to go to the Crucible, he's excited. Summer doesn't think twice—she never does when someone needs her. Tai accepts the job with the relaxed smile of someone who's already found everything he'll ever need. Only Raven hesitates. She doesn't say a word. She still hates to look weak in front of the others, and she gets away with it because Summer's looking the other way. Qrow could call her out on it.

He doesn't.

It's the first time a scouting mission involves all of them. Technically it might be better for Tai to stay behind, as an extra anchor for Raven's portals—but none of them really want him to, least of all Tai, so it doesn't happen. He climbs in the airship with them, and then they're off.

There's something unsettling about it. An empty continent. Well, not completely empty—the Grimm out here might be hellish, but they're not quite as bad on the shore. Ozpin's told them there are some fishing villages clinging to its very edges. Best to avoid them, though. People who live this far off the grid aren't the kind that appreciate being found.

So they set up camp on an empty stretch of beach. It's not much of a camp, really, since they're sleeping in the airship, but Summer builds a fire and Tai drags log benches around it. The two of them stay there as anchors, and to protect the ship. Raven and Qrow fly out alone.

For almost a week, it's boring. They go on short flights, no more than a day out, and portal back to the others every night. Getting a better feel for the place. The Grimm are unfamiliar—he spots several five-legged creatures with vicious hook-shaped tails. Few of them take much notice of him or Raven, in their bird forms. The ones that do are easy to avoid.

On their sixth flight, they don't come back. They sleep in shifts, still bird-shaped, in the boughs of a tree. Then they fly again, for hours on end, through thick forests that bristle with inhuman noises.

The Grimm vanish.

They're still out there, somewhere. Qrow can sense the watching eyes. But nothing attacks them, nothing comes out where they can see it, and nothing makes a sound.

On the third day, they meet what looks at first glance like a Nevermore, except that its mask is eyeless. It tilts its head all the way around so that its beak is upside-down, and opens it to reveal a glowing red eye at the end of its tongue. It's off again before they can try to kill it, flying much faster than them towards the heart of the Crucible.

No Grimm on the fourth day. Nothing tries to kill them. Qrow really, really wishes something would.

Night falls on the fifth day. He and Raven settle in another tree, huddling close together even though the weather is mild.

Qrow's on watch. He's looking at the tree across from them—it's a twisted, gnarled, ugly thing, all bumps and ridges. And then he blinks and there's a little red glow at its roots. It's... it's...

Beautiful.

He quorks, to wake Raven, and flutters to the ground. But the light is gone. Darkness rushes in, and he's all alone, and he _needs_ to find it—

"What the hell are you doing?" Raven mutters, harsh in the dark.

"The light..."

He tries to hop further into the trees. Raven grabs him in her claws and holds him there. She's much bigger than him in bird form, and no matter how he struggles he can't...

The light is back. She goes still. They both stare.

It's his. Of course it's his. Something precious he lost a long time ago, in an ancient forest. His mother, or his home... no. Something dearer. He has to find it.

The little red light hangs in the air, orbiting languidly around Raven. "Oh..." she whispers, so soft, and a portal appears in front of her.

Qrow shivers. He doesn't want to go back—but this door doesn't lead to their teammates. The light vanishes again, and Raven darts after it. Into the void.

They come out in a blackness so total, Qrow can't even tell if his eyes are open or closed. And there's a horrible wrench, because he can't see it, he can't see the _light..._

And then he can. Only it's not the light, it can't be. Raven can't have made a connection to _this._

There's a woman slumped against a stone wall. It's dark, not quite black but iridescent, glimmering purple against the dim red light that hovers in front of her. She must have been human, once, and she's dead—has to be, because there are roots growing through the walls. Through _her._ They snake through her chest, her arms... She's corpse-pale, limp, but her eyes are wide and frightened and _alive._ And they're not red at all, though for an instant the light makes them look that way. They're silver.

A tendril slides out of her mouth like a fat black tongue. Curling in on itself. Tasting the air. The woman shudders.

"Ah..." she croaks. "Ahh..."

Qrow doesn't think—he kneels next to her, human-shaped, and leans in. "It's okay," he says, which is bullshit. "We'll get you out of here."

Raven goes human, too, and draws her sword. Raises it to cut the woman from the wall.

Tendrils erupt from her—and there are a dozen red eyes staring at them, growing out of her like mushrooms. She shudders again, and her eyes roll back, and the tendril in her mouth retreats so she can speak.

**"Ozma."**

Qrow whirls around. The light in front of her only reaches so far, a tiny island of bloody light. He can't see the edges of the space. Only darkness, from which dozens of voices speak at once.

The light vanishes.

He grabs Raven. It's pure instinct, in that moment he doesn't even remember that she can get them out of there. She tugs at his arm, hard, and they tumble into emptiness... and behind them a chorus of voices continue to chant in a language he's heard only once, the same terrible ancient sounds that Ozpin made before he and his sister melted into birds.

Qrow explodes back into reality and falls flat on his face in the mud. He rolls onto his back, his hands running over himself, searching... but there's no curse. No wound. No horrific _thing_ growing out of him.

"Raven!"

Tai grabs his sister before she falls. Summer kneels over Qrow, her hand at the back of his neck, gently petting his hair.

"The portal," he chokes out. "Is it... did it...?"

"Gone," Raven gasps, and buries her face in Tai's chest. "It's gone."

Qrow slumps against Summer's hand.

It later turns out that the mud came from a massive storm off the coast of the Crucible. Summer and Tai had to move the airship so that it wouldn't get carried away by the waves, and there's no question of flying out tonight. So they climb inside and try to sleep.

They all stay in the same cabin, because Raven wants Tai and Summer close and Qrow's never wanted to be alone less than he does right now. There's two beds inside, and the others all cram themselves into the bottom bunk, so he settles on the top one. Bird-formed. Trembling.

Eventually, the others assume he must be asleep. Then he hears rustling. Raven's whispered, "Fuck this."

"Rae," Summer murmurs.

"We can't fight _that._ We can't."

More rustling. A sleepy grunt from Tai. Then he mumbles, "We don't have to. We just need to get the hell out of here."

"Right now. What about a year from now? Ten years from now? How the fuck is Ozpin supposed to win this war if _that's_ what we're fighting?"

"I mean..." Tai sighs. "Magic eye-beams?"

"I told you. She had silver eyes."

A long silence. Then a sharp breath.

_She's crying._

Qrow feels a mad urge to come down and see it for himself. But he doesn't, because if she sees him she might stop.

"Shh," Summer whispers. "I'm right here."

Raven makes a tiny, choked sound. Then, "Distract me."

Noises he does _not_ want to hear, cut blessedly short. Raven gets up and goes to the door with Tai in tow. They stop there, waiting.

"Go on," says Summer. "I don't want to leave him alone right now."

Raven grunts and exits the room.

Qrow pokes his head over the edge of the bed. Summer stares at him for a second, horrified. "How much of that did you...?"

He hops down to the bottom bunk and fluffs himself up on the pillow. She sighs. "Fine, but don't whine at me if I roll over and squish you."

The next morning, Raven wakes him up by grabbing him. Qrow squawks and wriggles free of her fist, scattering black feathers everywhere.

"Come on," she snaps. "We're getting firewood."

"I told you, we can do that," Tai says, gesturing back at the airship where Summer is still in the process of waking up. "I mean, we've literally just been sitting here the past few days, and you guys..." He finally notices the way Raven's glaring at him and holds up his hands. "Okay, okay! Just... be careful."

So Qrow spends almost an hour in a forest he never wanted to see again, silently poking around for wood that isn't completely soaked. Then, from behind him, "Let's do it."

He turns around. Raven is watching him, her bundle of firewood abandoned at her feet. "Do... what?"

"Disappear."

"What?"

"You know." She looks away. "Like we wanted to as kids."

"We can't. Summer and Tai, and Ozpin—"

 _"Fuck Ozpin,"_ Raven snarls.

Qrow takes a step back. "It's not his fault—"

"He knew. He's, what, thousands of years old? More? There's no way we're the first ones he's sent out there. He knows we can't win."

"Bullshit."

"You seriously don't think he knows."

"Maybe he _does,_ but he's got a plan, Raven. We've always known this shit is scary. That doesn't mean we can't—"

"I'm not _scared."_

"Raven..."

"And I'm not _stupid,_ either. I'm not dying for a lost cause."

Qrow has to look down, to reassure himself that his feet aren't really sinking into the ground like quicksand. "Fine," he says. _"Fine._ If you don't trust Ozpin... trust Summer. There's no way in hell she's giving up on this. She'll figure something out, like she always does."

Raven's laugh is sharp and bitter. "No. She won't give up. She'll keep running headfirst into this shit, and you can keep following her if you want.

"I'm not doing that. I'm not going to _watch—!"_ Raven stops, her face contorted with the venom of the words she's spitting out. Her shout scatters small birds and leaves a petrified hush in its wake. There's a frozen instant where he wants to reach out and touch her. It's gone before he can move.

Her expression turns smooth and unconcerned. "Like I said. I know a lost cause when I see it."

Qrow sets his jaw. "No."

"What?"

 _"No."_ His heart thunders in his ears. It's like he's stepped out of time, somehow. This can't be real. "I'm staying. Don't you get it? This is our chance to do something that _matters—"_

Something slams into him. He reels, catches himself on a tree, looks wildly around.

She's gone.

"Raven?"

There's a feather on the ground.

"Raven!"

It's sunset when Qrow stumbles back into camp. Summer grabs him by the shoulders, wild and frantic. "What happened?"

And Tai, his eyes red from crying. "Where's Raven?"

"Left."

They look at each other. "You're not seriously doing more scouting," Tai blurts. "We'll just go back to Ozpin and tell him..." But he sees something on Qrow's face, and falls silent.

"She's not coming back."

Another night when they can't leave him alone. This time Qrow stays human, squished between Summer and the wall, because he needs a hand to hold the feather between his fingers. It's dark. The others are asleep.

He reaches out.


	6. Silver

_A woman,_ Qrow tells Ozpin. _Rooted to the wall._

He doesn't mention her eyes. And he won't talk about what Raven said to him, when she dragged him out into the woods. Only that she's gone, and she's not coming back.

When he's finished, he looks up at the headmaster. Pleading. "Oz... what _was_ that thing? Was that...?"

"Salem? No. That was Kudzariel. Very, very old, but still only a Grimm."

"It spoke."

"I thought it might have."

"It said... Ozma. And..." Qrow trails off. "I don't know. I didn't understand it."

"You wouldn't. There aren't many left who speak that language. Ozma was—is—me."

"Did we get _anything_ useful out of this?" Tai asks.

"...No." Ozpin's shoulders slump. "No, I'm afraid we didn't."

The headmaster thanks them for their work. Tells them he'll have to do some thinking. That he has other people he can call on for now, and they should take some time to rest. Qrow doesn't quite vanish—he sticks around long enough to tell them he's coming back, but not to expect him for a while. He doesn't say where he's going, but it's not hard to figure it out.

So that leaves Summer and Tai. Stranded.

It's supposed to be a vacation, but she's never felt less like a vacation in her life. Plus there's all this adult stuff they've been ignoring for the past few years—things like having a permanent place to live, and friends who they don't kill Grimm with, and grocery shopping.

At least being part of Ozpin's shadow conspiracy pays pretty well. They find a place on Patch, near where Tai grew up, this tiny little shack that's falling apart at the seams. In other words, exactly what they need right now. A project to keep them occupied, and a living space too cramped to feel empty.

The place is just starting to look halfway livable when Ozpin needs them back again. But it helps more than she expected to have somewhere to come home to. And come home they do, after a week long mission in southern Vacuo. It's harder than it should be with only half their team. So they come back beat up and exhausted, and pass out in the bedroom that still smells faintly of mildew.

Summer wakes up before Tai, which is a problem because somehow he's rolled over so he's lying on her arm. She untangles herself slowly, smiling at the little wrinkle in between his eyebrows. Presses a light kiss there before she gets up. He mumbles something and reaches for the space she left behind.

Early morning routine. Stumbling around the bathroom, eyes gummed halfway shut, finally lurching downstairs. Fixing a plate of breakfast. Turning around to put it down on the table.

Summer stops. Stares.

The baby stares back.

Slowly, gingerly, she sets her plate of eggs on the counter. The baby blinks at her. Lilac eyes widen. Its face goes pink, then red. Its mouth opens... and it starts bawling.

"Uh... Tai?!"

His feet, thundering down the stairs. A thump and a muffled curse. Summer leans over the box—the _cardboard box_ that's sitting on their kitchen table, stuffed with newspaper and a single blanket to cover the baby girl inside. It's easy to see her mother in her button nose, the curve of her chin, the shape of her eyes. Even easier in the way she's screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking her little legs with such violence that she flings the blanket onto the floor. A scrap of paper flutters down onto the table, with "Yang" written on it in a hasty scrawl.

_Fucking hell, Raven!_

"Hello," Summer says, her smile bright and cheerful and edged with desperation. "You're probably looking for your momma, huh?"

A flailing arm hits her right under her eye.

"Wow. You've got a mean right hook." Summer bites her lip and, well, what _else_ is she supposed to do? She picks Yang up and bounces her gently up and down, murmuring soothing nonsense.

Food. Food's important, and they don't have any formula. How long has she _been_ here? Surely she would have woken them up during the night if she was hungry...

Tai blunders in, his hair sticking up in all directions, his eyes wild. "Summer! Are you—"

He stops. Stares.

"Formula!" Summer blurts. "Like, now! I don't know when she last ate."

"Y-yeah." His eyes flick from her, to Yang, then back again. "Right. Yeah!" He takes off running, stumbles into the door frame, then doubles back to grab the keys to his bike.

"Shh," Summer gives the infant another bounce. "That's it, we've got you."

Yang is unimpressed.

Summer sits down and shifts her to one arm, cuddling her close against her chest. She keeps on wailing. Typing one-handed, Summer finds Qrow's contact information and pinches the scroll between her cheek and her shoulder.

"Come on," she mutters. "Pick up, pick up..."

A click. "The fuck is that _noise?"_ he grunts. Groggy. Probably hungover.

"I've got your niece with me."

"...My what?"

"Any luck finding Raven?"

"No. My _what?"_

"You heard me!" she bursts out, keeping her voice sweet and cheerful so she won't scare Yang. "Your niece! Your niece who I found in a box just now!"

"...Fucking hell, Raven."

"So, you know." She rubs Yang's head. It's already covered in blonde fluff, and stupidly soft. "If you could get your butt down here and help me, that'd be great."

He's quiet for a moment. Then, "Shit. Yeah. Yeah, I'm on my way."

He hangs up. Silence... except for the screaming and wailing.

"Shh," Summer says again, rocking Yang back and forth. "Don't you worry. We're gonna get you fed, and then we're gonna get your momma in here, and I'm gonna wring her neck!" The infant hiccups, then giggles.

Well. Definitely Raven's daughter, then.

"You think that's funny, huh?" Summer pets her fuzzy little head. "That's it, that's better—"

But the moment passes, and she's bawling again.

Summer sighs and reaches for her scroll. "Hey, da? Is dad there? Can you put it on speaker for a second?"

"Is that a baby?" Bain asks.

"That's Yang, and it's a long story. Probably. I don't actually know most of it, but I'm gonna be taking care of her for, um, somewhere between a day and eighteen years."

"You what?!" Kieran this time. "Is it Tai's? Why didn't you tell us you were pregnant?"

"Uh, yes? And I wasn't. Look, it's complicated but I need to know if I can feed her something other than formula. He's out getting some now but we kinda weren't expecting her, so. We have milk?"

"What do you mean it's complicated? Do we have a grandchild or not?!"

"I'd wait until he gets home," Bain says. "Unless it's a serious emergency. When was she last fed?"

"I don't know. We're not sure when she got here."

_"Got here?!"_

"If she's still got the energy to cry like that I'm sure she can wait another half hour or so."

"Okay, thanks! Hanging up now!"

_"Summer!"_

"Love you lots, I'll explain later!"

She cuts off the call before the frantic shouting on the other end can get Yang any more freaked out than she already is. Then she sits there, biting her lip. "Guess we just wait, then," she says, and tries some more bouncing.

Her scroll is still in her left hand... but she puts it down and shifts Yang into her lap. "No more panicking," she says. "I'm gonna be cool as a cucumber, see?"

It takes a long time, and a lot of cooing and bouncing, but eventually the crying tapers off. Yang must have tired herself out too much to keep it up—she blinks a few times, then shuts her eyes.

"That's it." Summer strokes her cheek with one finger. "That's good. Take a little nap, and we'll have food for you when you wake up."

It doesn't work out quite that well. Tai's frantic when he bursts through the door, and that wakes her up again. She starts to cry again, but this time it's less of a bellow, and she calms down a little when Summer rubs her head.

"She's good!" she calls out. "Qrow's on his way."

"Right! I'm gonna, uh..." Tai blunders into the kitchen, dropping his keys as he goes, and starts fumbling at the stove. "Ran into somebody at the store, she told me how to—gah, fu-udge, hot!"

He manages not to set the house on fire, and eventually comes back with a bottle. "Hey there," he says, and sits down gingerly next to Summer. She moves to pass Yang over—

The angry screaming returns.

"Shh!" Summer bounces her frantically on her knee. "Hey, hey, it's okay! I'm just gonna pass you over to your daddy for a second so he can feed you. Doesn't that sound good? Food? No?"

"Here." Tai crowds in at her side and holds out the bottle. "I can do it from here. Might be easier this way anyway."

Yang quiets down as soon as they stop trying to move her around, and latches onto the bottle. Tai lets out a shaky sigh of relief. Summer sits there, holding his daughter, who doesn't want him to take her.

"Sorry," she murmurs. "I didn't mean to—I mean—"

"Nah." Tai grins and touches the baby's cheek with one finger. "Don't apologize for her being comfy with you." He swallows. "You're... you're her mom, too. If that's okay?"

"Raven might want her back," Summer says. Her arms tighten a little around the infant.

He huffs. "Well, tough sh-ugar."

Summer giggles and leans into his side. Now she's being fed, and no one seems to be trying to leave her again, Yang pokes curiously at Tai's face.

"Hi there." She finds the stubble on his chin and coos. "What's your name, d'you think? Huh? Did mom give you one, or did she figure we'd take care of that too?"

"Yang," Summer says softly. "It was on a piece of paper."

He takes another shaky breath. "Flipping heck, Raven."

Qrow stumbles in at midnight, haggard and disheveled and more sober than he's been in months. Summer offers to go on the shopping run instead, but Tai shakes his head. "I'd rather wait a few days before either of us leave without her. Make sure she knows we're sticking around."

Easier said than done. Days stretch into weeks, but Yang still cries whenever one of them leaves to use the bathroom. They try playing peekaboo, in some vague hope that it'll help her get the hang of object permanence. She cries more. Tai starts bending over backwards to keep her with him—but Summer grabs his hand and says, "She's gotta learn it's okay, Tai."

So she sits with Yang on the couch while she wails like Tai's just walked off the face of the earth. "I know," Summer murmurs. "I know it sucks. But you have to face it, or else the fear starts to control you."

Yang hiccups. Tries to keep crying, even though she's running out of breath, and she makes this horrible strangled sound. Summer holds her close and kisses her fluffy head. "I'm not going anywhere," she whispers. "I promise."

When it starts getting better, it happens much faster than Summer expects. Yang forgets all about Raven, and the incident that left her in their house in the first place. They clean out the spare bedroom and fill it with everything she needs. It feels uncomfortably like giving up on a distant hope. Maybe that's a good thing.

Maybe they shouldn't have set up a spare bedroom in the first place, when Qrow hardly ever uses his. He stays with them for the initial ruckus, but then he's off again. Hunting for Raven, or at least an explanation. Summer tries to stop tossing and turning at night, thinking about what she'll say to her if she gets the chance.

Yang's moving around long before they're ready for it. There's a flurry of frantic child-proofing, while she goes from crawling to sprinting with only the barest nod to the steps in between. The place has already lost most of its rotten roots—they've worked hard to make it cozy—but every time Summer relaxes she finds another rusty old nail sticking out of a wall somewhere. She and Tai both develop what feels like a second semblance for grabbing Yang when she's on a collision course for something sharp.

Summer thinks maybe she should be frustrated, or terrified, by how good Yang is at escaping into the backyard and running for the woods that only _probably_ don't have Grimm in them. And she is, but more than anything she's relieved to see her running around like the whole world is open to her, without even a hint of fear that they'll disappear while her back is turned.

They're in the living room one afternoon, her and Yang. Summer's reading to her, and without warning Yang flops onto her knees and says, "Mama."

She drops the book. Then she's laughing and hugging Yang, and Yang's squirming and giggling and kicking her legs in the air. Tai said it, too—but this feels, somehow, like the approval she needed.

"Yeah," she says, and buries her face in the mop of blonde hair. "Yeah. I guess I am."

When Tai hears about it he insists on celebrating—it's her first word, after all. Summer decides then and there that Yang's staying with them. Raven can fight her if she doesn't like it.

She kind of wants her to. Anything to show she still cares.

That night, she and Tai are side by side in bed. Both still awake. She's humming with energy—it's the nicest insomnia she's ever had.

"Hey. Summer?"

She rolls over to look at him.

"Do you want to have a baby?"

Stunned silence.

Tai panics. "Sorry, sorry! I know we haven't talked about it before, but... I can't stop thinking about it. Not that you have to, I mean, it's your choice obviously—"

"I don't know. I just... I need time to think about it."

"Oh." He wraps an arm around her. "Right."

A week later she goes on her first mission since Yang came into their lives. Not one of Ozpin's—just a normal bounty with Qrow, because they're getting dangerously low on lien. Tai offers to stay home as long as they need. "I always wanted to settle down and have a family eventually," he says, with a wry grin. "Didn't figure it'd happen this fast, but hey! I'm adaptable."

Left unsaid—Summer can't do that. The idleness is already crawling under her skin, and she's been struggling to sleep through the night.

They're on their way back when Summer turns to Qrow. "Tai asked me if I wanted to have a baby."

He trips over a root and lands flat on his face. "Well, shit," he says, when she helps him up. "Congrats."

She's quiet.

"Ah. Okay. This is a serious talk, then."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Nah." He punches her shoulder. "Go for it."

"I just... it was easier with Yang. She needed me and I could just be there. But how can I do... _this_ to someone else?" She gestures at herself. Her eyes.

"You don't know if you'd pass it on. Maybe the kid would take after Tai."

"Maybe, but maybe they won't. Maybe there'll be people after them, and it's—I don't want that, Qrow. I don't want them to grow up hunted like that."

"Summer..."

"But what if I _don't?_ Then it'll end with me, and then Salem gets exactly what she wants! The silver eyes get a little closer to being extinct, she'll—she'll have been _right,_ to send Ichabod after me."

"Summer." He grabs her arm and makes her look at him. "Don't think about that. Think about what _you_ want. That's the important part."

"I do," she admits. "But it's not that simple, Qrow. I can't just ignore the fact that I might pass it on."

"Hey." His smile is soft and sad. "You and me know better than most people what it's like to grow up cursed. Are you saying you regret it? All of it?"

"No," she says instantly. "I don't, but what if—"

"Nope. No what-ifs. Look, that little kid of yours? They're gonna have you, Tai, me, hell, probably Yang too, all wrapped around their little finger. Plus, three of us are Hunters. They're already better loved than I was, and safer than you were."

"I guess..."

"Do what you want to, dork," he says, ruffling her hair. "We'll figure the rest out."

She smiles. "You know, you're not half bad at this."

"Learned from the best."

Yang's still a little too young to understand when they tell her she's going to have a sister—but she laughs and gets excited when she notices Summer's pregnant.

"Wanna feel?" Summer asks, and for some reason Yang takes this to mean she should try and tackle her legs. Tai stands in the doorway to the living room, laughing, and scoops her up to sit on his shoulders.

Somehow, through all of it—morning sickness, cravings, having to pee every five minutes, and one deeply unpleasant false alarm at four in the morning—the most uncomfortable thing is the itching in the back of her mind. The need to stand up and _do_ something. Then she's finally there, in the hospital, with Tai and Qrow on her right, her fathers and Tai's mother on her left, and Yang hanging off the bed next to her head.

She and Tai talked about names, and never found one they both liked. But when her husband gives her daughter to her, and she's looking at the tiny, wrinkled little face, she thinks of one he suggested that didn't strike her at the time.

"How about Ruby?" she asks. He's too overcome to speak, but she takes his frantic nodding as a yes.

Yang reaches out to touch her. "Careful," Summer murmurs, as her eldest pokes her finger into the baby's open fist. She lets out a delighted squeal when Ruby grabs it. At the sound, the infant stirs. Her eyes open blearily.

They're silver.

"Mama?" Yang tugs her sleeve. Summer blinks, and realizes she's crying.

"Nothing," she says, running her fingers through her daughter's unruly blonde mane. "I'm just happy."

Only Tai and Qrow notice she's lying. Qrow squeezes her hand, and Tai kisses her forehead. And it helps. It does help. But she's underestimated the power of old fears.

Yang's five, and Ruby three. They're living in a new house, a few miles away from the cabin, because there wasn't enough room for two kids. Summer hasn't been out on a mission in years, and hasn't had a decent night's sleep in almost that long. Tai's mother has just passed—he'll stay in Vale tonight, near where she was living before she died, for the funeral.

"I don't think it's a good idea to bring them," he says, glancing at the girls where they're playing on the carpet. "But... I'd like you to be there. We could hire a sitter?"

"No." It comes out sharper than she meant it to. "Sorry, I just... I'm not comfortable with that. Is Qrow...?"

"Still not answering his scroll."

It's not cause to worry—he tends to go dark like this whenever he thinks he's close to finding his sister, or if he's blackout drunk. That doesn't mean she won't.

"You haven't been out of here in a while," Tai says, tucking a loose lock of hair behind her ear. "Are you sure?"

"Yep." She takes a deep breath and smiles for him. "As long as it doesn't rain I should be fine."

It's the wrong thing to say. His brow wrinkles up in concern. "I can stay, too, if you need—"

"No! No, go on, I'll be okay. It's just one night."

And, of course, a thunderstorm rolls in. Summer lies in bed, staring up at the ceiling, trying to focus on the cracks of thunder instead of the pattering of rain on the glass. It's not as bad when it's pouring like this. Slower is always worse.

There's a knock at the door. She jumps out of bed and opens it too fast, and Yang's standing there blinking at her. "What's wrong?" Summer squats down so her daughter doesn't have to look up at her. "Did you have a nightmare?"

Yang nods.

"C'mere." Summer picks her up and makes exaggerated groaning sounds. Yang giggles. "You're getting big, aren't you?" Then she sits down on the bed and combs her fingers through her hair. She's inherited Raven's tangles. "I get nightmares too, you know."

"You do?" Yang stares at her with wide eyes, like she's just said she's been to the moon.

"Yep! That's why I know the secret cure."

"What's the secret?" Yang whispers.

"Well, if you sleep next to somebody, the nightmares can't get you."

Of course Yang wants to try it, so she curls up in the crook of Summer's arm and shuts her eyes. For a few minutes she flinches with every thunderclap, but then her breathing evens out and her face relaxes. Summer lies awake a while longer, until the warm presence at her side lets her finally drop off.

She wakes again in a panic, her ears ringing with the sound of shattering glass and a toddler's scream. But it's quiet, except for the gentle pattering of the rain as the storm fades away.

"Mom?" Yang's sitting up, now, and trembling.

"It's okay, sweetie." Summer takes slow, deep breaths. "Just a nightmare."

"Oh..."

"Hey, how about we bring your sister in here with us? Then we can have a little slumber party."

"Okay."

Ruby murmurs groggily when Summer lifts her, but doesn't wake up. Soon they're all tucked under the covers, and Yang's halfway asleep again. "I thought the nightmares couldn't get us like this," she mumbles, nuzzling into Summer's shoulder.

"Most of them can't." Summer runs a hand through her hair. "But sometimes grown-up nightmares get sneaky."

The next morning Tai comes back, and Yang laughs and climbs on him and seems to forget all about that night. Summer gets a message from Ozpin. It's the first mission he's sent her in years—she knows he's already waited much longer than he wanted to.

Summer could say no and stay home. Live knowing she's let people die, given in to the fear and let it own her. She could, but she won't.

(Yang doesn't remember the promise she's breaking—but doesn't that make it sacred?)

"I'm ready," she says, when she gets to his office. "To start back up again."

Ozpin smiles. "I'm glad to hear it."

There's a long pause. She thinks he's probably expecting her to ask about the mission. She hesitates—maybe it would be better to leave it alone, skip to the logistics. But she remembers the way Raven looked at her. _She had silver eyes..._

"I'm not retiring. I'll keep working for you as long as I can. And that... that probably means I'm going to die for you."

"Summer..."

"And that's okay. That's the job." Sweat pricks at her palms. She'll stay as long as she can, for the girls—she'd do _anything_ to stick around for them. Anything except hide, and let the burden fall on them instead.

"It is."

"I've never asked you for anything, not once. And I never will again. Just leave my daughter out of it."

"You know I can't do that. If she chooses to be a Huntress—"

"Then let her be a normal Huntress. Let her find a team and get into trouble without any special attention. Let her graduate and take normal missions killing normal Grimm. Don't make her one of your Guardians. Leave her out of your war."

"Summer, a gift like yours... it's a rare thing. And I really don't know how long we could manage without it. Her eyes—"

"You have _mine._ Figure it out."

"I will do everything I can."

"I need you to promise me."

In the moment of silence that follows, it's hard to believe she ever looked at this man and thought he'd only lived one lifetime. She imagines she can see every wrinkle ever etched into every one of his faces, choices and mistakes piled up until she marvels that anyone can bear the weight of it.

And Ozpin says, "I promise."


	7. The Gift

Raven wakes up cold, with her arm outstretched.

She's lying on the floor of a small cave carved into the base of a cliff, with nothing between her back and bare stone except for a thin straw mat that smells like mildew. There's a rat staring at her. It's the closest to comfortable she's been in a long time, in the closest thing this shithole has to an inn—the cellar of the local doctor. They don't usually get visitors.

Raven groans and shuffles to the corner of the room, where there's a wooden basin for her to wash her hands and face. She stands there, staring at the water in her cupped hands, wondering where the others are now. Probably back in Vale—it's taken her more than a month to find this place. They're suspicious of strangers, and particularly suspicious of shape-shifting strangers with red eyes. How very nostalgic.

"Enough," she tells herself, and splashes water on her face.

She needs to figure out where to go next. Staying here isn't an option—it's too close to Salem, to that _thing,_ when getting away from that shit was the whole point of leaving. She's just not sure how she's going to get back to the mainland. Her semblance could take her there in an instant, but the portals make a noise. All it will take is for one of them to notice her, call out to her. Then she'll have to look them in the eyes and—

Raven vomits into the basin.

Her breathing comes short and ragged. She grips the edges of the basin to steady herself and squeezes her eyes shut. It's not that surprising, really. She's not sure what the fuck was in the stew they fed her last night, but it certainly _tasted_ like it would give her food poisoning. Or maybe one of the villagers actually did poison her. Either way, if she's not dead yet it'll probably go away in a few days.

It gets worse.

She ignores it, because she's busy negotiating with the locals for a boat and supplies. They've got a few fishing canoes, but her lien is worthless around here. She's had to barter her boots for the room she's using, and there's nothing else on her that any of them want—except her sword, which is not for sale. She's expecting a long and grueling fight.

Instead, they seem happy to let her take one of them for free. So happy, in fact, that it makes her skin crawl. Nothing is free out in the wilds.

One fisherman tries to warn her that it's a terrible idea to go out into deep water alone. Only one. None of the others seem surprised that she's not worried about the Grimm, though a few are confused when they see her eat. She decides not to press the issue, mostly because her stomach ties itself into knots and she has to run off and puke in the ocean.

Two weeks later, and it's definitely not food poisoning. It's not a flu. She remembers the last night—alone with Tai in the other cabin, drowning out the world with his smell and the rasp of stubble on her skin. Reaching down, only for him to freeze up.

"We're on a mission."

She kissed him, and the howling in the back of her mind quieted just a little. He's always like that. Calming.

He pulled away. "I, uh... I didn't bring condoms."

"I don't care."

Raven puts a hand on her stomach. There's definitely a bump.

"You have your uncle's sense of timing," she tells it, and throws up again.

When she tells the doctor she's pregnant, she gets very pale and mumbles something under her breath that sounds suspiciously like a prayer. "The father doesn't live here," Raven adds, guessing that maybe it's some kind of taboo forbidding sex with outsiders.

The doctor makes a strange gesture with her right hand. Almost like she's trying to ward off evil. Raven remembers the fishermen who don't think she can eat, and starts asking pointed questions. It turns out half the village is convinced she's a Grimm.

"You let me sleep in your house," she says, exasperated.

"You can speak. When a Grimm speaks, you do what it wants or you'll wish it killed you."

Raven shivers. "You get a lot of those, around here?"

"No. But there are stories."

It takes longer than it should to convince the doctor she's human. Her bird form she explains away as a semblance, even though it isn't, because talking about Ozpin and magic seems like a bad idea. She transforms and shows the woman she's a raven, not a Nevermore. Look, there's no mask. Look, I bleed.

On the doctor's advice, she doesn't bother dispelling the misconception in the rest of the village. It probably won't work, and arguing will make her look weaker in their eyes—maybe weak enough for someone to try killing her. Raven can't help but notice that the ones who think she's a monster are far more polite.

Once that's out of the way, she has to figure out what to do with the baby. "I can deliver it," the doctor says. "Or get rid of it. Your choice."

"I can't raise it." Raven has only one home left, and she won't condemn a child to growing up there alone.

"Alright." The doctor stands up.

"Wait. I'm still thinking."

"I'm not letting you leave it here. It'd be kinder to kill it."

Raven goes stiff. Aware all over again of the thing in the woods, and the phantom sensation of eyes on her back. She's been here much too long. "No," she agrees. "No, I won't do that."

The doctor watches her, impassive and implacable. She makes her choice.

"I'll take it back to Saunus. There are people there who'll want it."

She has to hide in the basement for the last several months, because apparently seeing her give birth would be a bridge too far for some of the villagers. She scoffs. As if a Grimm could bear a child.

Then, finally, it starts. It hurts a lot more than she expected. Worse than being impaled, which is saying something. The doctor gives her a rag to bite down on, and offers her a shot of something that smells like paint thinner. Raven considers it—would it do that much harm, when the damn thing's on it's way out anyway? But she can _feel_ them glaring at her, all worried and wounded, and she shakes her head. She can handle pain.

It takes a long fucking time. But finally she goes limp, soaked in sweat and ready to give up, and it's over. Her head falls back onto the mat, and she stares up at the ceiling. There's a little row of holes up by the top of the eastern wall, for ventilation. The day's first glimmer of light is peeking through.

"Fuck's sake," she gasps.

The baby starts to cry. The doctor, thinking fast, stuffs a rag in its mouth.

When Raven finally sits up, she hands it to her. It's lumpy and wrinkly and red, hardly even human-looking, with wispy blonde fuzz on its pointed head. She stares at it.

It opens its eyes to stare back, and all of a sudden it looks just like Tai.

"Shit," she whispers.

There's already an anchor.

"Congratulations," the doctor says, and wipes blood off her hands with a rag. "You going to name her?"

Raven speaks without thinking. "Yang." After Taiyang. That's what she's choosing for her, isn't it? Letting her grow up to be like him. A soft little kingdoms girl.

She grimaces, but it's still the name she tucks into the box with her daughter, three days later. Yang wriggles in the blanket, but she's tucked in too tightly to get her arms free. She makes a cooing sound. By now she's lost the alien look of a newborn, and her eyes are wide and curious and trusting.

She'll fit right in with that family.

Raven waits until the dead of night. Then, human-formed and carrying the box, she walks through the portal. She emerges in a silent, cramped kitchen. Yang stirs in her sleep when she's placed on a nearby table.

She lingers a little too long. Long enough to notice the faint smell of roses and wood smoke. To be tempted.

But she's not stupid, and she's not getting herself killed in an impossible war. She could convince Tai to stay out of it. Summer... Summer's not stupid, either, but she's so desperate not to run away from things that she has to run towards them instead. There's no fixing that. So she'll do the next best thing and leave them a piece of herself. A final gift.

Raven slips out the window and flies away.

The tribe is hard to find. That's by design—they could never be strong enough to win a straight fight with all the Hunters Mistral could bring to bear, so they fly under the radar. But this is different, somehow. When she approaches they run from her like frightened sewer rats.

"Have you all lost your _spines?"_ she sneers, and some of them flinch. "Where is she?"

Her heart flutters with childhood fear. An irrational instinct that even now, if it came to a fight between her and the Crone, she would die. Never mind that the woman must be over a hundred years old.

And yes. Never mind. Because the Crone is dead, has been for years, and most of the Branwens she remembers are gone. Those who remain are sniveling, pathetic creatures. They don't put up much of a fight.

Whipping them back into shape is an excellent distraction. She's too tired, when she falls asleep, to miss the weight and warmth of Tai and Summer. Too angry to feel the aching void where her other half should be. Too busy to wonder about her daughter.

Most of the new Branwens assume that her bird form is her semblance. Raven doesn't correct them—as far as she's concerned, her semblance is gone. She has no anchors in the tribe, and it's better that way. Easier not to give in to temptation when she knows she'll have to fly all the way back, and that they'll probably fall apart while she's gone.

So she thinks she's finally past it, she thinks she's cut it all away, and of course it's Summer that fucks it up. There's a tug. She's in the middle of the camp, shouting at a woman twenty years older than her who keeps slacking off on chores. Then she stops mid-sentence and almost falls over.

_She's dying._

Raven knew it would happen. She just didn't think it would happen so soon. And she didn't think, she didn't fucking _think,_ because of course she can feel it. Her jackass brother isn't the only one who's cursed.

She won't go. She _won't._

But something inside _twists,_ and the next instant she's somewhere else. Humans and faunus all around—Raven kills the ones she doesn't recognize. Then she turns and raises her sword and Summer shouts, "No!"

She stops. Notices for the first time that one stranger is younger than the others. Somewhere between eleven and fifteen, probably. Raven's never been good with children's ages, but she's definitely too old to be Yang.

Doesn't matter. She turns to fly away—

_"Wait—!"_

Cursing herself, Raven waits. She doesn't trust herself to look at Summer.

"I need... need your help."

There's a wet cough that knocks her heart off its rhythm. She spins around and finds Summer wincing and holding her stomach.

"I can see that."

"Not this." Summer beckons the little girl. "Here, Lily..."

"I'm sorry," Lily blurts. "I know I should have helped, I just—"

"S'okay. Just... c'mere."

The girl's eyes flick towards her. They're a bright yellow-green, still full of tears and fear. Raven's lip curls. Reluctantly, Lily inches closer.

"She's running away. From... us, actually. I'm—" Summer breaks off into a fit of coughing. Raven reaches out before she can stop herself, grimaces, and lets her hand fall back to her side. "I'm supposed to bring her back."

She still hasn't gotten to the point, but she doesn't really need to. "Which season?" Raven drawls.

"...Spring."

There's no sign that magic was used in this fight. Apparently the Spring Maiden is too useless to defend herself.

It's not her problem. She should just fly away.

But Summer grabs one of Lily's hands and says, "I'm sorry," and Raven wonders if she talks to Yang like that. Soft and warm. The question roots her to the ground as the Spring Maiden, one of the most powerful people in the world, curls into Summer's cloak and buries her face in her shoulder. It's pathetic. Raven's done the exact same thing.

Lily won't go back, no matter how much Summer pleads with her. Doesn't care that it's dangerous out in the wilds, that Salem will hunt her for the rest of her life. Can't describe what it is about Ozpin that makes her want to run so badly. Summer can't understand why anyone would run from something they know is going to kill them. They're at an impasse.

Summer meets Raven's eyes.

"No," she snaps.

"I won't force Qrow to lie to Oz."

"I left Yang with you and Tai for a reason."

She's standing too close. Summer grabs her hand before she can snatch it away. "I have a daughter, too. Ruby. I can't leave behind a world that won't give her a choice."

"Any brat of yours will be stronger than _this,"_ Raven scoffs.

Summer squeezes her hand and waits like that until Raven looks at her. And she does, even though she knows it's a trap. She meets silver eyes, and Summer says, "Please."

"Fine." She yanks her hand away. "But I'm not your fucking safety net. Tell the others. You, Tai, Qrow, Yang... you each get one. You've just used yours."

"...Right." Summer tries to stand, but a red stain is coming through her cloak and her legs won't hold her.

"Tai or Qrow?"

"Qrow. Don't want the girls to see."

She makes the portal, and pushes Summer through it. Then she's alone with a trembling preteen with fantastical powers she apparently can't use. "I'm doing an old friend a favor," Raven says. "But you pull your weight, or I'm sending you back to Oz. Understand?"

Lily nods, which turns out to be a lie. She doesn't know how to fight, she's skittish and squeamish, she hesitates before attacks and flinches away from feints. Raven shouts herself hoarse trying to coax even the tiniest spark out of her. She gets a little better, good enough to beat anyone else in the tribe, but that's only because of her powers. She'll be helpless in a real fight, with the ones Salem will send to kill her.

Years pass. Qrow uses his one save. She's learned her lesson by now, and doesn't let him speak before she flies away. He chases her, but she's faster.

Lily stops getting any better. Raven really should throw her out—it's only a matter of time before she brings the tribe attention it might not survive. But when she remembers the look on Summer's face, she just can't bring herself to do it.

They're too good at making her weak.

So she makes one last attempt. They hike out into a part of the woods too thick with Grimm for the tribe to camp, and set up tents. "I won't help you," she says flatly. "You shape up or you die." The Crone did this, sometimes—Raven's never heard of anyone coming back. She and Qrow would have, but the ones strong enough to handle it don't get sent out here in the first place.

She watches Lily fight an Ursa. It's pathetic, considering she should have vaporized the Grimm within seconds, but she's not dead yet. Raven drums her fingers on the hilt of her sword. _Tap, tap..._

And then she's on her feet, and the blade's out, and there's a portal in front of her. The same thoughtless reaction. But she won't do it, she _won't,_ she gave Summer her one free pass and that's _it._ She's not going to let them drag her back into this—

Raven moves anyway. Through the portal and into the vast emptiness. And for the first time in her life, there is nothing on the other side. The bottom drops out of her world.

She lands on her back on the forest floor, breathing in great shallow gasps. Her semblance must have broken. Or the danger passed, or Summer went out of range...

But her semblance is always intuitive. She knows what it means. Summer is dead.

"Raven?"

She's paralyzed with a useless urge to claw her back to life—or at least to see a body. But she's too late for her semblance to lead her home.

"Are... are you okay?"

She's known for years that this would happen. She's been _gone_ for years. It's not a surprise. It's not supposed to hurt so much.

A hand on her shoulder. Raven snarls and flings Lily away from her. "Don't _touch_ me!"

She sounds like a petulant child.

Lily approaches her again, emboldened by the show of weakness. Reaches out. _Not you,_ she thinks, and slips bird-formed between her fingers. _Not you._

Raven opens a portal and lands on her brother's shoulder.

Qrow turns his head. "I thought you weren't coming back." No greetings. No smiles. No attempts to make her stay. "I'm not dying, so what are you doing here?"

It takes a second to figure out where _here_ even is. She has the vague sense that it's somewhere in Vale, but it feels too cold to be Patch. "You're on assignment," she says.

"Yeah. I always am, these days."

"Where is Summer?"

His eyes narrow. "She didn't tell us, so probably something for Oz. Why?"

It's all Raven needs to know. She launches herself into the sky—or tries to, but her claws catch on a loose thread on his jacket and he grabs her before she can get loose. "Let go," she snarls. "I'm going to kill him."

Qrow stares at her, and for the first time in years the mistrust between them melts away. He's too scared to remember that he's angry. "Raven? What's going on?"

"She's dead."

That's enough for her to slip through his nerveless fingers. He follows her, and if she wanted she could pull away. She doesn't. Because she can't kill Ozpin, but she might at least be able to take her twin away from him.

It takes a while to reach his tower. They land on the windowsill, the pair of them, pecking at the window until he comes to meet them. He throws it wide, and she lunges for his eyes.

Ozpin throws a hand up to protect his face. A line of blood trickles down his arm. "Raven!"

She flaps up into the rafters, settling on one of the ticking gears and preening her feathers. It would have felt good to blind him. Even if she can't kill him, she wants to make him hurt.

Qrow's crying when he returns to his human shape. She flutters restlessly through the clockwork of the tower, feeling trapped. She can't turn back now and look weak in front of _him._ "Summer is dead," she says again, and it's all accusation.

Ozpin pales and sits down heavily behind his desk. "How do you—your semblance. Of course."

She hates the way Qrow looks at him. Pleading. "I don't understand. Is she out of range somehow? She can't be..."

The old man shakes his head gravely. "She could reach you from the Crucible. If anything could block her, it would be that."

"It's your fault." Raven hops down to land on Qrow's shoulder again.

It's one of those moments where Ozpin looks his age. "I swear to you, if I knew what happened I would tell you."

"This wasn't for you?" Qrow puts his hands down on the edge of the desk. Not angry but desperate, and it makes her want to scream.

"Liar," she snarls, her voice harsh like only a raven's can be. She's disgusted with him, this shriveled old man who burns lives the way most people burn firewood, but she's more disgusted with her brother, who will swallow any story that makes him feel important.

He never closed the window. She doesn't care to hear any more.

Once she's out in the open air, away from Ozpin and his ageless eyes, she begins to doubt. He seemed sincere... but then again, he always does. Maybe he can fool her brother with that shit, but does he really think it'll work on her? Of course he knows, Summer tells him about all her missions.

All? No. Almost all.

The camp isn't where she left it, but she finds it quickly. She's surprised to see Lily alive and unscathed in the center of camp, smiling as she lights the fire with her fingertip. The smile fades when she spots Raven flying towards them.

She goes to her tent. Others have set it up for her, awaiting her return. Inside is dark and quiet, and she can finally press human palms to her face. It's wet.

"Raven?"

"Not now," she snaps. There's a rustling at the tent flap. Lily.

"It's Summer, isn't it."

Her sword is in her lap. She runs a thumb along the edge, drawing blood, and it calms her. "She's dead," she says, and this time she can do it coldly.

Lily lets out a little, "Oh." Like she gives a damn. Like she's met Summer more than once.

"Get out of my tent."

There's a hand on her shoulder, now. "I know she meant a lot to you. I'm sorry."

Lily is comforting her. Lily, the worthless waste of space with almost limitless power who can barely protect herself from a few Grimm. Who let Summer defend her without lifting a finger. She's acting like Raven is the frightened child.

"Get. _Out."_

Footsteps. Lily walking around her. Raven tries to keep her back between them, but it's hard when she's sitting down and she's so tired. The Spring Maiden kneels in front of her. Gently, so gently, like she's afraid she might break something, she wipes away a tear with her thumb.

It's like a portal opens up inside her. A hole leading to that dark and empty void.

"Ozpin says he didn't send her on a mission."

Lily's eyes well up with pity.

"What was she doing, do you think, that she wouldn't tell him about?" Their faces are so close together that Raven can see the instant when realization hits.

A glimmer of fear. Shock. Confusion. Pain.

And then nothing.


	8. What Remains

It starts with a name, because that's all he can give her.

Yang wants to know more, but stories and explanations all stick in his throat. Tai doesn't hate Raven—how can he, when she gave him one of the best things in his life?—and he doesn't want Yang to hate her, either. Something tells him she will, if he tells her everything. She's already quiet and sullen with the thought of her birth mother leaving the two of them. He doesn't want to tell her that Raven left Summer, too, because there's no one left to forgive her for that.

There are worse things crawling half-acknowledged around the back of his mind. He can't tell Yang about Raven's semblance, for fear she'll put pieces together that none of them are ready to face. (They each get one save. Only one.)

So he tells her that she's her biological mother, and Qrow's sister, and that's enough for Yang to want to meet her. Tai sighs and says that he hopes she can, too. Hell, maybe she will—he won't pretend to understand how Raven thinks. But Qrow can guess, sometimes, and he doesn't think she's coming back.

Tai does not tell Yang how she can call Raven to her in an instant. She might be angry with him about that, later—but it might also save her life, so it's a price he's willing to pay.

Yang asks him questions about Raven.

"Where'd she go?"

"Why'd she leave?"

"What's she doing?"

"Don't you know _anything_ about her?!"

He thought he did.

It's normal, isn't it, to want to know more about where she comes from? Maybe Qrow could answer more of those questions, but he's hardly ever home, and he doesn't want to talk about Raven. No one does, except for Yang.

Eventually she stops asking, and there are other things to focus on. Ruby stops talking, and he has to choose between spending hours coaxing a few mumbled words out of her, and trying to get her to eat. And Yang... Yang's angry. He's not sure if it's at him or at Raven.

(It's neither.)

Tai can't afford a baby-sitter, even with Qrow sending money when he can. He's been gone from work too long, too much time spent near-catatonic and barely managing to take care of the girls, let alone himself. As much as he hates leaving them alone, he keeps having to ask Yang to look after Ruby while he's gone. She always makes a fuss about it. Always.

Until the day she doesn't. He smiles, and ruffles her hair, and thanks her. He thinks it's a sign that things are finally turning around.

When he comes home, the house is empty.

It knocks the wind out of him. All of it hits him at once—every night he felt Summer wake with a jerk. Every rainstorm they spent sparring, because it helped her ignore the sound. And the day she finally told them why.

Tai fumbles his scroll. He's barely coherent when he finally gets through to Qrow, and the second he hangs up he tears the house apart. Nothing. No one. And he stops in the doorway to Ruby's bedroom, staring glassy-eyed at the window. It's open.

His heartbeat roars in his ears. He stumbles out of the room, knocks over a bookcase, and lands on his knees on the floor, struggling to breathe. That's how Qrow finds him.

"Tai. _Tai."_

"Window," he gasps, and Qrow's eyes darken.

"Get up. We're searching the house."

Nothing in the girls' rooms. No sign of anything disturbed or broken. No struggle. No blood.

Tai has to stop to lean against the wall and breathe. Qrow shakes him. "Panic later, Tai!"

They take off down the hallway. Qrow stumbles and almost takes a header down the stairs. "Are you _drunk?"_

"Yeah."

"For _fuck's_ sake, Qrow!"

"It's not like I can turn it off," Qrow snapped. "I stopped as soon as you called, okay?"

"No! You can't just show up useless like this when I _need_ you, you asshole!"

Qrow grunts and shoulders his way past him, thundering down the stairs and digging through the mess in the kitchen. Tai stalks out into the garage and slams the door behind him. He can't hear anything over his own pulse.

There has to be something. Some sign of where they went, and who took them.

He squeezes his eyes shut and doubles over. His head is spinning with Summer's worst fears, the phantom image of a hand tapping on the glass. His fault. He wanted a baby, he retired and left her to hunt alone, he went to work and left them here and he didn't lock the window—

Tai trips over an empty space. He looks down and there it is, the place where Yang's wagon should be but isn't.

"Qrow," he breathes. Then, louder, "Qrow!"

He stumbles in with Harbinger drawn. "What?"

"They took the wagon." He touches the place where it's supposed to be, and clings to the scrap of hope it gives him. "Yang would do that. She'd do that if she left on purpose." If they left on purpose then they haven't been taken. If they haven't been taken they might still be safe. Might...

"Why the hell would she need a wagon? Ruby can walk."

Tai clenches a fist. _"Yes,_ Qrow, she can walk. But she's _five,_ she can't stay on her feet forever."

"So where the hell are they going that's so far away?"

The search starts again. It's easier now that his head is clearer—within minutes he notices a chair left by a high shelf, and a piece of chaos that isn't his own doing. He finds an old photo album there, missing a picture. The one of Summer standing with her back to a maple tree, laughing, her hood thrown back. Their old cabin in the background.

There's a reason they left, with one small child and another on the way. The woods around the cabin aren't safe.

"Go!" he says, and shoves Qrow towards the window. He's gone in a whisper of feathers. Tai scrambles to follow on his own clumsy human feet.

It's dusk when he meets them on the trail. Qrow's in the lead with Ruby on his hip, her head nodding onto his shoulder. Yang's hiding behind his legs.

Tai rushes forward, checking them for injuries. Not even a scratch on Ruby. Yang's covered in scratches, but by the look of them they came from trees, not Grimm. He lets out a shaky sigh. "Any trouble?"

Qrow hesitates. "Yeah," he admits. "Couple Ursai, but I took care of it." Raven didn't show up, he doesn't say in front of Yang.

A couple of Ursai versus two children. Maybe Raven would have saved them if Qrow hadn't gotten there in time. Maybe she would have saved Yang and left Ruby to die. He can't trust her, not since Qrow knocked on his door and told him Summer wasn't coming home.

"Take Ruby and go back to the house."

Qrow doesn't move.

_"Now."_

He stalks off, casting a dark look over his shoulder.

Tai looks down at Yang. "What were you _thinking?"_

She doesn't answer.

"You could have been _killed,_ Yang! You could have gotten your _sister_ killed! And, what, you don't know?"

Yang hugs her arms around herself. "I thought she'd be there."

His next breath rushes out like the air from a deflating balloon. "Damn it," he mutters.

"I'm sorry." She's wiping her eyes, trying to hide that she's crying.

"You're grounded. For... I don't know. A long time."

A shaky nod.

"And you never do anything like this again. Not _ever._ Do you understand?"

"Y-yeah."

"Okay," he sighs. "Let's go home."

As they walk, he reaches out to put a hand on her head—but she ducks away, and he doesn't push.

Qrow is waiting for him in the living room, standing stiff and silent with his arms folded. Tai gestures towards the hallway. "Go on," he tells Yang. "Bedtime." It's not, but she doesn't argue.

"What?" he says, into the silence that follows.

"She felt bad enough. You didn't need to be that harsh."

Tai's jaw clenches. "I didn't _want_ to be, but she needed to learn that pulling shit like that is not okay."

"She thinks this is her fault, now."

He collapses onto the couch and puts his face in his hands. "She dragged her little sister into a Grimm-infested forest, Qrow. It is her fault."

Qrow kicks the sofa he's sitting on, and a seam tears. "Where the fuck were you, then?"

"Working," Tai grits out. "Where the fuck were you?"

"Searching."

Tai laughs. "Oh, yeah. Which bar were you looking in this time?"

"Fuck you."

"She can come back whenever she wants, Qrow. Obviously she doesn't want to."

There's a crash. When Tai turns around Qrow is gone, and there's a broken lamp on the floor. A drop in the ocean, really, compared to the mess he made looking for the girls. He sighs, and walks down the hall to check on them one last time.

Ruby isn't in her room.

He's halfway through _something,_ a heart attack or a panic attack or maybe a good old-fashioned stroke, when he hears shuffling in Yang's. He presses his ear against the door.

"Bad dream?"

Silence.

"C'mere."

Bed springs creak, and Ruby sniffles once.

"I know the cure. But you gotta promise not to tell anyone, 'cause it's a secret."

"Okay."

Whatever Yang says next is too quiet to hear through the door. Tai stands there for a long time with his hand on the doorknob, waiting until they're asleep. Then he eases it open.

She's sprawled on her back, with Ruby tucked against her shoulder. Tai kneels down to kiss their foreheads, and he's sure his chest is about to burst from love and shame.

Out in the hallway, he slumps into a sitting position with his back to their door. "I'm sorry," he whispers. He knows he fucked up, that Summer would have handled it differently. But he can't promise her he'll do better next time when he still has no idea how. He's just so tired...

"This is it," he mumbles. "I need my save."

She doesn't come. Of course she doesn't—this isn't the kind of hurt she understands.

Tai wakes up on the couch. His mouth tastes foul—he didn't brush his teeth last night. There's light streaming in through the windows. He groans and flops back against the cushions, throwing an arm over his eyes.

There's a thump, a curse, and the tinkling of broken glass.

He sits up. Still groggy, he stumbles his way into the kitchen. Yang freezes with her arms full of broken glass. The end of a broken lightbulb is poking out of the remains of the lamp Qrow knocked over last night.

"Shit," he mutters, and lunges forward.

Yang hugs it to her chest and says, "I got it."

Tai reaches out to brush a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm happy to let you clean up... but I'll handle the broken glass, okay?" She has too many cuts already.

"I can do it." Yang dumps the glass in the trash.

He does at least get rid of the rest of the shattered lamp before he retreats upstairs. It's late, and he's overslept. He needs to go to work. But he sits down and puts his head in his hands, and it's over. His momentum is gone. He doesn't move again for a long time, and when he does, it's only to make a terrible mistake.

The photo album Yang found is still on his dresser. He cracks it open, and it's like a wave crashes over him. There's Raven, pretending to scowl because there's a camera pointed at her—and there she is again, caught by surprise in mid-laugh. There's Summer, with a baby Ruby in her lap and Yang sitting on her shoulders.

It's past eight when he drags himself back downstairs. Ruby's on the floor on her stomach, coloring with a set of crayons.

"Hey," he says, and kneels down. "What are you drawing?"

She doesn't say anything, so Tai puts an arm around her. "How about some dinner?"

"Not hungry," she mumbles.

"You have to eat something. We can order pizza if you like. I'll even put pineapple on it."

She looks up.

"Well, half of it." He reaches for a grin, but it's just not there.

"We ate." He turns his head, sees Yang in the doorway to the kitchen. "I made eggs and toast."

"Oh. Thank you."

"There's some extra if you want."

"No, thanks. I'll fix myself something a little later." He means it in the moment, but when he next remembers it's past ten and he decides to go to sleep instead.

There are things Tai needs to do. His job, the bills, cooking and cleaning, laundry and shopping and the damn pipe that burst in the bathroom. Usually he can manage a couple of them, in a day. Sometimes it's too hard just to open his door.

 _She could do it,_ he thinks, when he knows he should get up and doesn't. Usually it's Summer he's thinking about. It's much worse when it's Raven. He can almost hear her— _Look at you. Pathetic kingdoms boy._ Maybe she's right.

He's deep in the fog of lethargy, months later, when he gets the call. It's one of those days when answering the phone takes him a long time. The ringing stops. He lets his arm fall and sighs. It starts again, and that's enough to make him grab it.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Mr. Xiao Long?"

No one's ever called Tai that in his life. "Who is this?"

"I'm Carmine Cartright. I own the grocery store up on North?"

Now he's really lost. "Uh, yeah. I know it."

"I have your daughter Yang here."

He frowns. "No, that's not—she's at school."

There's a long pause.

"Sir... it's a Saturday."

"Oh." He scrubs a hand across his face. "Right. Sorry."

"I'm sorry to bother you, but... well, she was just caught shoplifting."

"What?"

"She took a few bags of food and walked out. Without paying for them."

"I know what shoplifting is," he snaps. Then he groans. "Never mind. Just... give me a moment, I'll be right there."

He can't leave Ruby home alone, so he packs her into the back of their car and drives. He probably _can_ leave her in the car for a couple of minutes when he gets there, but old fears make him drag her along behind him instead.

Yang's near the back, staring sullenly at the ground with her arms folded. There are a few bags of groceries on the counter between her and Carmine. It's not snacks, like he'd assumed—bread, fruit, a carton of eggs, cereal...

"What's going on here?" he demands.

She doesn't answer.

Tai lets out a breath and turns around, squeezing his eyes shut to block out the fluorescent lights. Something's buzzing in another part of the store, maybe the refrigerators, and he has to steady himself against the counter. "Why? Why would you do something like that?"

No answer.

"Damn it, Yang—"

Ruby tugs his pant leg and says, "I was hungry."

He's thrown. "Wha—why didn't you use what was in the house? I went shopping just last... last..."

Shit.

Tai crouches down in front of Yang. "I'm sorry, honey. But you can't just take things, okay? You need to ask me, and I'll go buy what we need."

"You were tired," she mumbles at her feet.

_Fuck._

"I'm never too tired to feed you," he says firmly. "And if you want to help buy groceries that's fine, but you have to come ask me for money first."

She blinks at him. "But... I'm grounded."

Tai presses both hands to his face and smothers a groan. He completely forgot about that.

"You're not. Or—you're not allowed to go out in the woods until you're much older, but you're not grounded."

"Oh..."

Carmine clears her throat. He forgot about her, too, and cringes at the look on her face. "Sorry," he says, and fumbles for his wallet. "How much?"

She glances at Yang and Ruby. "It's fine."

He stops, and for a second he can _see_ Raven. Sneering at him.

 _Yeah,_ he thinks. _You're right._

"One moment, please," Tai says, and walks into the middle of the store. He comes back with a package of spaghetti and a can of sauce to add to the bags. Then he pulls out a hundred lien card and puts it down on the counter. "For the food, and the trouble."

He moves to leave, and she snaps, "You stay _right there,_ and let me give you your change."

In five minutes they're home, and in twenty he's setting bowls out on the kitchen table. Ruby's eyes light up, which hits him like a punch to the gut.

Dinner is quiet. He picks his way through half a bowl of pasta before both of the girls are finished. Ruby's got so much sauce around her mouth that she could wander onto the set of a horror movie without anyone batting an eye. Yang still won't look at him.

He puts down his fork. "I'm sorry. I know I haven't been... here, as much as I should be."

Yang shrugs. "S'okay."

"It's not."

More silence.

"That was good," Ruby says.

He can't smile, so he pats her head instead. "Glad you liked it."

Late that night, after the girls are asleep, he sits down heavily on the couch and calls Qrow. It's the first time since the wagon incident. His voice is rough and slightly slurred.

"What?"

"Can you come to the house?" Tai asks.

"What's the emergency this time?"

"It's not. Not exactly. I just... I need the help, Qrow." He squeezes his eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I've been a mess lately."

Qrow grunts. "Yeah, well. Things are shit."

"Yeah..."

"I'll be there in a few hours."

The waiting is awful. Tai spends the time waking up to the world around him, and realizing how much work around the house has been just... happening. He thinks about all the times he came down in the morning and found Ruby already packed and ready, a cup of coffee waiting for him on the table.

How long has she been doing that?

That's the worst thing—he didn't even notice. The decay was so gradual he didn't realize what was happening until he shut down so much that Yang had to steal food. He groans and slumps down on the table, and that's how Qrow finds him.

"You look like shit."

Tai sighs. "Yeah. I know. Sit down?"

Qrow perches on the arm of the couch, his shoulders hunched. He's only halfway sober, but it's better than nothing.

"I'm sorry," Tai says. "About last time you were here. Especially for... for giving you shit about looking for her."

"I wasn't looking for Raven."

"...Summer, then."

"I've been thinking about what she was doing. Why she was out on a mission when Oz never gave her one. It must have been something about Ichabod, or others like him. Maybe she found some of them."

Tai doesn't answer. He's pretty sure Ozpin knew. That it was something to do with some secret he only shared with Summer. Hell, she's _been_ on missions none of the rest of them got briefed about. But he doesn't say any of it, because Qrow needs to believe Oz wouldn't lie about that. Or maybe Tai needs to believe they aren't hunting his daughter.

He changes the subject. "You were right. About Yang. I... I think she needed to hear it, but she also needed me to follow up on it, and I didn't. I just kind of..." he trails off, runs a hand through his hair. "I want you to stay."

Qrow stiffens. "Tai, I can't—"

"I know it's risky. I do. But—shit, Qrow, Yang almost got arrested for shoplifting today, because I was too spaced out to remember to buy groceries and she didn't think she could ask me about it." There's a stinging in his eyes. "I spent all this time thinking that... even if she left, at least Yang came out of it okay. But... maybe she _would_ be better off with Ra—"

Qrow swats the back of his head. "That's the stupidest fucking thing anyone's ever said to me," he growls. "You want to know what we were doing at her age? Huh?"

Tai winces. "You're right. Sorry.

"Damn right I am. The last thing that kid needs is a Branwen fucking things up for her."

This time it's Tai that slaps his arm. "That's bullshit, too."

"I'm not exactly a pillar of stability," Qrow says, gesturing at himself.

Tai sighs. "Yeah. I know. I guess I figured... a two-legged table is pretty shit, but it's still better than one."

"Unless one of the legs might cause an earthquake."

"Qrow, _please._ I'm trying, I am, but I can't do this by myself."

They're quiet for a while. Then Qrow heaves a sigh and says, "Fine. I can hang around for a bit... but you have to talk to Yang."

"Yeah."

"And you have to do it right."

"I don't know how."

"What, you think I do? All I know is you can't leave a kid thinking they're the reason everything's gone to shit." He flashes a wry grin that doesn't reach his eyes. "I don't think anyone wants her turning out like me."

"There are worse things to be."

Qrow gapes at him.

"I mean, I don't want her feeling like you do, and I hope she won't drink as much, but you're a good man, Qrow. I know we aren't exactly each other's first choice, but... I'm glad you're here."

"...Oh."

"God, you're as bad as she is about honest affection, aren't you?"

"Fuck you," Qrow says, and smiles.

Yang's asleep when Tai comes to check on her, so he waits. He waits until morning, pacing in the living room, not sleeping because he's afraid he'll lose his nerve if he does.

She comes down the stairs a little after nine. "Sit down," he says, and scoots over on the couch. She sits.

Tai has no idea where to start, except, "I'm sorry."

Yang scuffs her feet on the carpet. "Am I in trouble?"

"No. No, I... stealing is wrong, and you won't do it again, but that was my fault. I just wanted to talk to you. About... what happened."

She looks down. He reaches out to touch her hair, but she goes stiff again, so he stops.

"It was reckless, and dangerous. But I... I didn't handle it well. I was only angry because you _scared_ me, Yang. If I lost you too, I don't know how I'd—" He can't finish the sentence. "But I know I wasn't... all there, after, and that wasn't your fault. If I don't get out of bed, or I can't... can't smile at you, it's not because I don't love you. I'm just... a little bit broken, right now."

Yang sniffles and wipes her eyes. "I'm sorry. I made it harder. I w-wanted..."

"I know." He reaches out again, and this time he touches her shoulder instead. "I miss her too."

She buries her face in his chest and mumbles, "I just wanted to talk to her."

And it hurts, it _hurts,_ because he's always been one to give the people he loves their space... but his kind of love isn't what Yang needs right now. She needs someone to dive right to the heart of things.

"You can find Raven, one day. If you're smart, and _careful."_ He's learned his lesson about touching her hair, so he rubs circles on her back. "But no matter how hard you look... you won't find Summer. She's gone, Yang. I'm sorry."

She starts to shake. He wraps his arms around her and squeezes, as if he could wring the grief out. But there's no getting rid of it like that.

Qrow's as good as his word. He stays through the worst of it, dragging Tai out of bed and distracting the girls with jokes and piggy-back rides and carefully abridged hunting stories. He even gets a job at Signal, and Tai honestly has no idea whether to be proud or horrified at the thought.

His next mission comes almost two years later. A short one, by serious Hunter standards, only about a week. The girls are nearly inconsolable, and somehow this leads to Qrow leaving them with a dog.

Tai's not sure how or when he agreed to that, but it only takes one morning waking up to the little guy nuzzling his face for him to decide he's staying forever. Taking care of Zwei is easy—no hard conversations about his mother, all he needs is food and pets and he's all tail wags and happy barks. It helps, feeling like he's doing something right.

Time feels like it's crawling, until it doesn't. It's as if he blinks and suddenly Ruby's in the yard sparring with Qrow, and Yang's knocking him on his rusty ass every other day.

They've always reminded him of their mothers, but on the night they're set to leave for Beacon it's the differences that strike him. Ruby at rest, her eyes halfway shut, relaxed like Summer could never stay for long. Yang plopping down next to her, kissing her forehead and saying, "I love you," like it's the simplest thing in the world. Raven's never said that to him, or Summer. He doesn't even think she's said it to Qrow. She could only show it sidelong, when she thought they weren't paying attention.

How did that happen? He's all missing pieces and Qrow's all jagged edges, and all these years it's felt like mistake after mistake and now... here they are. Flawed and wonderful, hurt and whole, the best of the broken pieces they came from.

There's a bark behind him. Tai kneels down to pet Zwei, and smiles through his tears. "It's a new start, huh?"

Zwei licks his hand.

"If I could change one thing... I wouldn't. I'd save it up, to make sure they get a better ending."


End file.
